


An Inappropriate Use of the Official Imperial Channel (Incidents 001-002)

by hollycomb



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Chatlogs, Crack, Emperor Hux, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-06-10 07:20:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 23,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6945367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollycomb/pseuds/hollycomb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ren occasionally abuses the privilege of having a direct line to the Emperor's personal channel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

REN: are you awake

HUX: Of course I’m awake. You know the hours I keep.

HUX: Did you need something?

REN: mission is dull

HUX: Well, I didn’t send you to Arnac in order for you to be personally entertained. You’re there monitoring the situation with the rumors of revolt. If things should get out of hand, I need you to use your powers to dispense with the political dissidents.

REN: don’t need a briefing. you already gave me one

HUX: What do you need, Ren? I presume you contacted me for some reason? Please feel free to share that with me at any time.

REN: told you already. read between the lines

HUX: Divining messages that aren’t directly communicated is your area, not mine.

REN: I’m bored hux

HUX: And why is this my concern? You’re at your post, are you not? Keep your eyes on the situation. Entertain yourself by doing your job.

REN: my job is to sit here and nothing is happening

REN: normally I’d meditate but I have been told not to do that while on command

HUX: As the person who ordered (not “told”) you not to do that while on command, I will reiterate that I think it’s a perfectly reasonable request of someone who is expected to monitor potentially volatile situations.

REN: everything is just a potentially volatile situation now. I miss combat. we used to fight wars

HUX: When you’ve conquered the galaxy there is rarely the occasion for a war. Wars are expensive. I don’t miss them at all.

REN: liar

HUX: There is some thrill involved in strategy, I admit, and I do enjoy the sensation of winning something in a finite way. But I also value security of command. I’m not some barbarian warlord who will spend his life constantly struggling for power. And I’m perfectly fine with that.

REN: you get bored too

HUX: Do I? What are you basing that assessment on?

REN: me

HUX: I’m afraid I don’t follow.

REN: I’m your cure for boredom

HUX: Ah. Please allow me to take this opportunity to tell you, again, that I do not want you discussing what I do in my recreational time on an official Imperial comm channel.

REN: me

REN: that’s what you do in your rec hours

REN: except for the times when I do you

HUX: All right, you’ve had your laugh at my expense. I’m so very impressed by the nuance of your humor, as usual. Now get back to work.

REN: you gonna punish me

REN: for abusing the official channel

REN: when I get back

REN: ?

REN: hux

HUX: Stop. This is a waste of resources and of my time.

REN: wrong. it’s helping me stay alert

HUX: By distracting you from your mission?

REN: I’m not distracted. can do more than one thing at a time. you’ve seen me multitask

REN: like when I’m on the bridge silently standing guard and also telling you how hard I’m gonna fuck you later, in your head.

HUX: How hard you’re going to fuck me in my head? Your choices in sentence construction leave something to be desired, you know.

REN: do I look like I care

HUX: Of course not. You won’t even use proper capitalization or punctuation, because you’re much too special and dark for such things.

REN: more like

REN: because I don’t have time to waste on bullshit

HUX: At least I’ve got you using contractions and capitalizing ‘I’ where appropriate.

REN: have you trained me hux

REN: do you think I’ve been tamed

HUX: Well. Yes.

REN: am I your servant

HUX: Unofficially, yes, you are.

REN: do you think of yourself as my ruler

HUX: I am your ruler. I rule all in the galaxy.

REN: yes but it’s different with me isn’t it

HUX: ...How do you mean?

REN: I could overpower you if I wished

HUX: Oh, please. With the Force, certainly, but do you really want the headache of ruling over an entire galaxy? You couldn’t go half a day in my shoes without losing your mind and smashing up something vital, causing utter galactic chaos.

REN: I don’t mean galactically

REN: I mean in private

REN: you rule me there ….sometimes

HUX: Ren, what the hell are you getting at? I have work to do.

REN: you know what I’m getting at

REN: sex

HUX: Yes, okay, since you’ve already made a mockery of what this channel should be used for, sure: We have sex sometimes. There you are. Well spotted. Goodnight.

REN: don’t go

REN: I meant sex now

REN: I can make you feel things

REN: even from where I am

HUX: With the Force? Don’t strain yourself, my hand works fine while you’re away.

REN: not with the force

REN: with words

REN: over this channel

HUX: I find that kind of thing quite tedious, I’m afraid. I need actual physical contact to get off.

REN: so touch yourself

REN: I’ll allow it

HUX: Ren.

REN: ?

HUX: Do you have your cock out at your damn post? Right now?

REN: no

REN: it’s in my pants emperor I swear

REN: but it’s getting hard

HUX: Why.

REN: because I just got you to picture me sitting here in the dark, in view of this town square, with my big dick sticking out from my opened pants, hard and heavy and leaking for you

HUX: Inaccurate.

REN: what did you picture then

HUX: Well, nothing so vivid as that.

REN: liar

REN: do you miss it hux

REN: my dick

HUX: I knew what you meant, fucking hell.

REN: so do you? it’s been 5 days. 5 long days without your tongue on my cock

HUX: I’ve enjoyed the peace and quiet aboard the ship enough to make up for the lack of physical stimulation provided by you.

REN: I don’t believe you

HUX: I don’t care if you believe me or not, it’s true.

REN: a person doesn’t like sucking dick as much as you do and not start to miss it after a few days

HUX: Don’t project your undisciplined need onto me. I went years without sex when I was making a name for myself, out of caution.

REN: it’s funny that you’re actually bragging about that

HUX: Why is it funny? It wasn’t for lack of opportunity that I remained celibate for a time.

REN: fuck why are we talking about your celibacy

REN: I’d rather talk about your lonely …. hole

HUX: You know I don’t like that word.

REN: I think you do like it. in a way. because your face gets red when I say it

REN: and also I can read your mind

HUX: Not always as well as you presume.

REN: you keep directing this conversation away from dicks and holes

REN: get with the fucking program here, please

HUX: What do you want me to say, Ren? I’m not even particularly adept at this in person.

REN: at what

HUX: At whatever it is you’re trying to do. Dirty talk? Cheap filth?

REN: are you joking

REN: you’re great at it

REN: the person who called me a greedy slut the first time he fucked me is gonna act like he can’t talk dirty ??

HUX: I didn’t say that I can’t do it in the heat of the moment. I merely implied that I’m not particularly creative in this area. ‘Greedy slut’ is hardly the most original term for someone who is presenting his ass to you desperately and shouting ‘harder’ as you fuck him. I was surprised when you reacted as if you’d never heard it before from someone who was in my position.

REN: well

REN: now I’m fully hard

HUX: That’s nice for you.

REN: it is nice

REN: what’s your situation at present

HUX: I’m sitting in bed with my data pad, going over reports on the day’s major events and developments, like I always do at this hour.

REN: hux you ass

REN: you know I meant your dick

REN: how’s it feeling right now

HUX: This is what I mean by tedious.

REN: hux please

REN: humor me

REN: is your dick hard. answer the question

HUX: I’d be more inclined to if you actually phrased it as one.

REN: don’t tell me proper punctuation gets you hard hux

REN: I know what really gets you hard

HUX: Please, enlighten me.

REN: hmm so many things

HUX: You’re not very good at this yourself, you know.

REN: shut up I’m thinking

REN: well first of all

REN: me eating your ass

HUX: Ugh. It sounds so unfortunate when you phrase it like that. You’re not arousing me, Ren.

REN: stop interrupting

HUX: Interrupting what?

REN: what turns you on is me flipping you over onto your stomach when it’s dark in the bedroom and your shift is still hours away, you’re still mostly asleep and asking me what i’m doing while I lick down along the length of your spine, and your breath stutters when I get to the crack of your ass and flick my tongue just over the cleft and suddenly you know exactly what I’m doing

HUX: I don’t like any of these words. ‘Cleft,’ for example. It’s unsexy.

REN: liar

HUX: Do you presume to tell me you’re sensing my arousal through the Force, from another system entirely?

REN: no but you just told me plenty

HUX: I didn’t say you were right.

REN: shhh why don’t you lie on your stomach hux

REN: with your hard cock pressed against the mattress while you prop yourself on your elbows and try not to rut the bed like a needy boy while you read my words on your data pad

HUX: I’m not the one who gets off on being called a ‘boy,’ remember.

REN: tell me what I get off on hux

HUX: I just did.

REN: I meant other stuff

REN: continue please

HUX: Hmm, a list of what Ren gets off on. Okay. (1) Being ordered to get on his knees. (2) Watching me slowly remove one glove. (3) Opening his whore mouth for two of my fingers. (4) Sucking gently upon command as I fuck his mouth with those fingers, slowly, while staring down into his eyes as I watch his pupils grow fat with lust and feel his mouth getting so wet for me.

REN: fat with lust

HUX: Are you really making fun of me for playing along with your stupid game??

REN: no no!

REN: I love that

REN: you’re doing great. keep going

HUX: Are you touching yourself while on duty, Ren?

REN: no I’m not

REN: I promise sir

HUX: If you’re going to call me ‘sir’ you had better use a fucking comma.

REN: yes, sir

HUX: Good boy. All right. Where was I?

REN: your fingers in my mouth. fucking my mouth. slow

HUX: That’s right. At first I enjoy how you’re beginning to drool for me, but then your mouth gets so wet that your need to be used is too shameful for me to bear. I remove my fingers. You make a soft noise, almost begging. I can’t decide what you’re begging for this time: these wet fingers sliding down through the crack of your ass? Or having my dick replace those fingers in your mouth, feeling my hand tangle in your hair and knowing I’ll be rough with your mouth because it’s so wet for me, because you’re so hungry for my cock?

REN: huxxxx

REN: yess

HUX: That’s your contribution, really? After all this work I’ve just done for you?

REN: for me. like hell. I know you’re getting off on this too

HUX: Stop telling me what you know. Tell me where you want my cock. Where do you need the most attention? You’re only allowed to have it in your mouth or up your ass. Pick one.

REN: fuck ok ok hmm

HUX: Hurry up, I’ve got things to do.

REN: rub your dick on my upturned face while I think about it

REN: taunt me with it

REN: my face is hot and so is your cock

REN: feels so good against my cheeks

HUX: Excuse me, I did not agree to do this yet.

REN: so you’re not rubbing your hard dick all over my face, trailing precome over my skin, feeling my eyelashes and my hot breath against your dick while you degrade me with it ?

HUX: It’s strange to see you admit in writing that you enjoy being degraded.

REN: hux cmon you fuck! you’re not funny!!

HUX: I wasn’t attempting to be. That was a sincere remark.

REN: you’re an asshole

HUX: What was that, Ren? You want my dick up your ass? All right, your choice is noted. Remain on the floor as you undress, and turn over onto your hands and knees, head down. Present yourself to your Emperor for inspection. I must assess, as usual, if you are worthy of my attention.

REN: okay okay good

REN: I’m taking off my tunic. Pants, gloves, boots, socks

HUX: Lower your chin as you expose your shameful nudity to your ruler, lowly subject.

REN: ok I lower my chin and peel off my shorts, wincing when the cloth rubs over my erection as it is exposed to you, very hard, wet at the tip, and also I have recently trimmed down there so my pubes are very orderly

HUX: Ren, fucking hell.

REN: what I know you like me to be well groomed

HUX: I hate the word ‘pubes,’ however! I can’t even believe I just had to type it!

REN: well I didn’t know that

HUX: Who doesn’t hate that word??

REN: I don’t know personally I think it’s kind of a funny word

HUX: Maybe to people like you who have a particularly juvenile sense of humor. Regardless, it is not arousing. Please move on. Describe your supplication.

REN: I’m bowing to you as I turn around, and I place my elbows on the cold floor of your throne room, scooting my knees apart and lifting my ass for your inspection, breathlessly awaiting your approval

HUX: You’re quite presumptuous, anticipating my approval.

REN: sorry, sir

HUX: Don’t speak to me, subject.

REN: wait am I me in this or just some random guy you rule over

HUX: You’re you, and also someone I rule over.

REN: ok. well I’m silent now, and as you stare down at me in cold appraisal my knees inch apart very slightly. my breath comes heavy, fogging the floor, my chest heaving even as I try to control my exhales

HUX: The heaviness of your breath is nothing compared to the weight of your cock as it throbs, untouched, between your widely spread thighs.

REN: balls too

HUX: What? You know I don’t like the word ‘balls.’

REN: fuck all your word rules, say something about my balls

HUX: Um, like what? Maybe you’d better take the responsibility for introducing your balls into this.

REN: introducing, what. like they weren’t already there??

HUX: I only meant introducing them to the narrative, of course they were always there.

REN: hux you are fucking terrible at this!!

HUX: Oh? Well, sorry to disappoint you. Goodnight, then.

REN: no no you’re good at it when you’re actually DOING it. just stop getting distracted and inspect my ass, emperor

HUX: How dare you fail to capitalize my title.

REN: can’t tell if you’re serious or if you’re back to doing the fantasy thing, Emperor Hux

HUX: I’ll give that ass of yours more than an inspection, you disobedient slut. I’m removing my belt now.

REN: my thighs begin to tremble

HUX: Calmly, soundlessly, I fold my belt in half, taking the two ends in my fist. I draw it slowly down over the crack of your ass. You suck in your breath and shiver a bit, head tucking in toward your chest as I continue to move my belt down over your heavy balls and flushed red cock, reaching the wet tip before moving the belt upward again, stained now with some of the fluid that pools and drips whorishly from the slit of your cock. I spread a film of this pathetic seed upward along the curve of your ass, until my belt has reached the small of your back.

REN: hell yeah

HUX: Ren.

REN: ?

HUX: YOUR TURN.

REN: wow all caps. ok

REN: you ask me if I know what happens to bad boys who don’t capitalize their ruler’s title properly. and if I think I deserve what’s coming to me

HUX: Now you’re putting words in my mouth?

REN: yeah. so put some in mine

HUX: Ha. All right.

HUX: In response to these uncharacteristically stupid questions that your Emperor has for some reason asked, you say you’re very sorry for being such a disappointment and begin weeping softly against the floor, flexing your ass upward, wanting the blows that will soon come almost as much as you want to feel my fingers pushing into you and readying you for my cock.

REN: don’t make me cry that’s dumb

HUX: Oh, please, it’s not exactly uncommon during sex.

REN: that was one time asshole

HUX: One time?? You have a selective memory, my friend.

REN: shut up and whip me

HUX: I ought to send you crawling out of my Presence with your cock hard and your face wet.

REN: no, sir, please

HUX: Two actual commas! For that, I grant your wish. The folded belt comes down hard across your waiting, upturned ass. You cry out in pain and gratitude, shoulders flinching.

REN: I wouldn’t really flinch but ok

HUX: Stop making me point out when it’s your turn. Go.

REN: after flinching that one time (and barely) I take my whipping very well and without making a sound or a move, my cock throbbing with each new blow, leaking onto your pristine floor

HUX: You would fantasize about dirtying my environs with your come, filthy boy.

REN: nnnh yeah and you grit your teeth and hit me harder for it, glowering down at me while I defile your throne room with this thread of puddling precome you’ve beaten out of me

HUX: When I grow bored with the exercise, perhaps sensing that you’re enjoying it a bit too much for my liking, I toss the belt aside and lower myself slowly into the most dignified squat possible, breathing evenly as I observe your trembling, breathless anticipation of what I will do next. Your ass is very red, crossed with stripes that will turn to bruises and make it painful to sit, but my brutalizing of it was perfectly measured, in the sense that I did not actually break the skin. I’ve already got the slime of your arousal on my floor. Spilling your blood there doesn’t interest me.

REN: the slime of your arousal

HUX: Fuck you, Ren.

REN: yeah please do

HUX: You’re unworthy. I can tell just by looking at your hole while you clench anxiously under my stare.

REN: why don’t you take a closer look, sir. you might like what you find

HUX: Well, now you’ve made me laugh, so I hope that was your intention.

REN: actually my intention was to get you to feel my hole to see if it’s suitable for your dick, your majesty

HUX: I’m not touching the hole of such a whorish, dirty boy without proper protection. I cross the room and retrieve my box of plastic gloves, along with a tube of lubricant.

REN: I listen to you putting on the glove, my ass stinging and sore and cock so hard as I wait for you to discover how incredibly tight I am. I can only hope you won’t realize I am an inexperienced youth who has never been touched by anyone but his Emperor

HUX: Don’t call yourself a youth, I’m not into that.

REN: I just meant that I’m younger than you, you fuck. you’re the one who calls me boy

HUX: (a) I do that for you, not for me, and; (b) it’s metaphorical, not literal. I’m not imagining you’re a boy. I’m simply reminding you that I know that, despite your age and size, you are a clumsy, sad little boy who needs my attention and discipline, and that you always will be.

REN: I prefer dirty and bad to clumsy and sad, ffr

HUX: What is ‘ffr?’

REN: for future reference

HUX: Of course. Anyway, let’s get on with it. I lower myself gracefully to the floor behind you, wearing my glove, the lubricant resting on the floor near your right foot. With my thumb and forefinger, I pry apart your reddened, sensitive ass cheeks and stare impassively at your apparent tightness.

REN: just say hole you said it once already

HUX: For some reason, you make an inane, insolent remark about my word choice. I give your hole a sharp flick in warning.

REN: yeah flick me again

HUX: No. Instead I swipe my finger across you very slowly, watching as you try to clench around this pressure against your now quite sensitive nerves. Your trembling intensifies, especially in your thickly muscled thighs.

REN: heh

HUX: Enough of these abbreviations! What is ‘heh?’

REN: it’s ‘heh’ like I’m laughing a little about how much you like my thighs

HUX: Shut up and say something hot.

REN: you’re so hard now aren’t you? are you lying on your stomach like I said? rolling your hips and dragging your aching dick against the mattress when i say something that makes you throb and wish so much that I was there to bury my tongue in your ass ?

HUX: If you were actually here I would have thrown you out of bed for being obnoxious some time ago. You’re really paying attention to your mission while all this is going on?

REN: yes, sir. the village square remains clear. my senses offer no indication of rebel activity here tonight

HUX: Fine. Continue.

REN: you put some lubricant on your gloved fingers and press against me with the tip of just one, testing. I feel so tight. your breath shortens as you push inside and imagine what this clenching heat will feel like against your bare cock. you think about just removing your finger, slicking your dick and shoving it into me right now, in one sharp thrust, no warning. you could do it. you can do anything you want to me. you are the emperor. anything you want is yours

HUX: That’s so true. I pet your back in appreciation for this sentiment as my finger slides in deeper, a second one joining it in due time, and I listen to the ragged push of your quickening breath as I fuck you very slowly with both fingers, making your skin seem to tighten all over with the need for more: faster, harder, deeper.

REN: nnh hux

HUX: Yes?

REN: give me permission to touch myself. in reality. through my pants at least. I’m so hard

HUX: Frankly, I’m shocked that you were actually waiting for my permission.

REN: please hux. I was good for you. I waited. let me touch it

HUX: No. You’re still on duty. You’re lucky I’m even letting you do this.

REN: i clench around your fingers and groan, begging

HUX: What are you begging for, boy?

REN: fuck me, sir. with your cock. I want to feel you filling me until it takes the breath from my lungs. please, sir, use me for your pleasure. show me how dirty i am, so dirty that your come belongs inside me

HUX: I continue fucking you slowly with two fingers, only grazing your prostate until I hear your breath catch, then relenting. So you think you’re a fit receptacle for the Emperor’s spent seed? You think you deserve to hold it inside you while you lie on the floor of his most sacred room, used and sticky, as he rises and moves to sit on his deserved throne and survey the wreck he has made of you?

REN: yes yes and you would watch your come leak from my ass while I lie there in worshipful silence, sorry that I couldn’t hold it all inside me after you’d finished with me

HUX: And what if I asked you to lick that mess up off my floor?

REN: anything, sir. gladly

HUX: We’re getting ahead of ourselves. As much as I enjoy the idea of your tongue cleaning the floor while more of my come rolls down over those thighs of yours-- I’m still seeking to determine whether this ass is worthy of my cock.

REN: what can I do to convince you

HUX: Hmm. Tell me how good it will feel. How well you would take it.

REN: I’ll take it so well, sir. you can fuck me as hard and as long as you want. i’m so tight for you, so ready. use me as your personal cock warmer for hours. anything. just fill me please

HUX: Are you touching yourself, Ren?

REN: no, sir

HUX: Do you swear to me?

REN: yes I swear. I want to though hux. am so hard

HUX: So hard just from the thought of being opened with my cock? Filled, used, left to clean up after what I’ve done to you while I watch? Your cock would still be hard, Ren, and untouched. You would still be so full while you leaned down, trembling and sore, to take that first lick of spilled come from my floor.

REN: when can i come back can i come back tomorrow

HUX: Excuse me? No. If this was all a ploy to try to get my blessing to wrap up the mission earlier, I’ll end you.

REN: it wasn’t anything like that but fuck there’s nothing going on here everything’s fine i told you before i even left

HUX: Your typing is getting worse, and your request is denied in full. Collect yourself. I have decided to fuck you. My fingers slide slowly from your well-worked hole.

REN: im so ready please hux

HUX: Are you begging me to fuck you or to allow you to come home early?

REN: ……..to fuck me

HUX: Well, then you’d better address me properly.

REN: please, sir. my Emperor. My Ruler, my Master, Your Excellence. I need you inside me

HUX: And why do you need that?

REN: because I’m a greedy slut

HUX: Try again.

REN: because I’m a bad, dirty boy who needs to be punished on your big dick

HUX: Wrong. Next.

REN: because??? I don’t know, fuck. you tell me

HUX: I lean over you, my pants opened now, cock freed and slicked. You feel it sliding against the crack of your raw, waiting ass as I place my arms alongside yours and bring my lips to your ear. Because you’re mine. I tell you this in a gruff whisper and you shiver when you feel the truth of it. You like feeling claimed, owned, obediently well-used. That’s why you need me inside you.

REN: damn who knew you were so romantic. not me!

HUX: You’re a piece of shit and I should leave you hanging and end this conversation right now.

REN: nah

HUX: How convincing. Goodbye.

REN: no no hux wait. I am yours. you’re right. you’re mine too but we won’t get into that right now

HUX: That’s fucking right we won’t. I lean back and shove into you with one brutal thrust that pushes a throaty, broken scream from your swollen lips as you throw your head back and take it, spasming around me, your breath heaving from you as you struggle to relax around the sudden intrusion. I grab your hair and push your head down again, to the floor.

REN: your cock burns inside me but it’s a good pain. you don’t let me catch my breath before you draw back and shove in again. this time I don’t make a sound, my hot cheek resting on the floor while my ass remains lifted for you

HUX: You’re incredibly tight and delightfully responsive, squeezing around me as if you can’t get enough, your attempt to remain quiet only lasting as long as it takes me to start truly fucking you in earnest, setting a blistering pace that leaves you gasping and moaning shamelessly, drooling onto the floor as you take it, both from your parted lips and the tip of your untouched dick.

REN: please let me touch it

HUX: In reality or in this fantasy?

REN: both

HUX: You may not touch yourself while under my command, on duty. However, within this daydream, I take pity on you when you begin to whimper with need, fucking yourself back onto me with everything you’ve got, the corners of your eyes growing wet as the pressure in your cock builds and builds and yet does not approach release. I tuck one arm securely across your chest as I lean onto your back, still fucking you in quick, hard snaps of my hips as I reach down with my other hand and take your shamefully thick, ridiculously long, painfully hard cock in my hot, tight grip.

REN: it’s not tight enough and i’M fucking your hand needing it so bad, begging

HUX: What does this begging sound like, exactly?

REN: please, sir, please let me come i need to come i promise i’ll clean it all up with my tongue when you’re finished with me, let me show you what a mess you’ve made of me

HUX: Oh, I can already see that. Try again.

REN: i’ll do anything for you, sir. I’ll be your slave forever.

HUX: Keep your pathetic offers of servitude. You are already eternally in my service. I have that guarantee from everyone in the galaxy. Show me something else.

REN: sir I need it i’m a filthy slut who has no self control please it hurts to hold back i need to fall apart you know how i am

HUX: I do know that. Okay, Ren. You can touch your treasonous cock. Discreetly, and don’t you dare take your eyes off the situation you’re monitoring while you pleasure yourself.

REN: thank you fou ryour

HUX: Huh?

REN: my hand slipped sorry. I came

HUX: In your pants? Already? Amazing.

REN: you’re still hard ?

HUX: Not technically.

REN: what

HUX: I finished a while ago. When I was picturing my come rolling down over your thighs while you cleaned my room.

REN: huh. why didn’t you tell me

HUX: Well, you didn’t ask, and also it’s really none of your business.

REN: none of my business what the hell. I’m the one who got you off. that makes it my business

HUX: Eh. I feel like I really did most of the heavy lifting. Are you sitting there now with your cock going soft and your shorts full of lukewarm come?

REN: it’s already pretty cold but yes

HUX: Good. Stay like that for the remainder of your shift. Dirtied by your Emperor. Sitting in a puddle of your own shameful lack of control.

REN: fine by me I’ve sat in worse

HUX: … That actually made me laugh, you should know.

REN: good it was meant to

HUX: Huh. Well. You’ll be back in two days.

REN: why can’t I just come back tomorrow. the situation is well under control

HUX: I don’t trust your judgment as much as you might like me to. You’re staying two more days.

REN: you fucking miss me though. I can tell

HUX: How.

REN: you used this channel to talk dirty with me for 12 scrolls worth of screen

HUX: That was simply for my own gratification. It was more enjoyable than I expected. That’s all.

REN: I’m more enjoyable than you expected. generally

HUX: Perhaps. Anyway, I’ll get back to my work now.

REN: ok. thanks for letting me come. sir.

HUX: Don’t make me regret it by doing anything stupid during the remainder of your shift.

REN: are you sure you can’t talk a little while longer

HUX: Talk about what? Isn’t your need of me satisfied by a single orgasm anymore?

REN: i don’t want another orgasm but no

HUX: What do you mean, ‘no?’

REN: never mind. bye

HUX: Yes, goodnight. Take care of my territory.

HUX: And yourself.

/end transmission


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING NOTE: This is a BODY SWAP chapter and while everything sexual is consented to the initial body swap was not.

**06:30**

Hux: I’m going to send a search squad out if I don’t hear from you in the next two hours.

Hux: So you had better be in real trouble and not just dicking around.

 

**07:02**

Hux: Ren

Hux: I’m sorry

Hux: I’m concerned

Hux: I’m going a bit mad here

Hux: I never realized how much I depended upon the idea that you’re invincible.

Hux: And now to think

Hux: You might not be

Hux: I don’t know why I’m sending these messages

Hux: Clearly you’re not receiving them.

Hux: As I said, going mad here

Hux: Talking to myself.

 

**08:29**

Ren: HUX WAIT

Ren: DON’T SEND A SQUAD SORRY

Ren: EVERYTHING’S FINE I’m fine

Hux: Typing in all caps doesn’t increase the volume of your messages, Ren.

Hux: Feel free to communicate your urgency in a civilized manner.

Ren: hux

Ren: shut up

Hux: Fuck you. Where have you been?

Hux: I nearly wasted valuable resources on recovering you.

Hux: Are you injured? In some kind of trouble?

Ren: like I just said I’m fine

Ren: also fuck you too

Ren: you dick

Ren: you were just crying that you were going mad without me so maybe don’t try to act all haughty now

Hux: There was no mention of crying, that’s solely your delusion.

Hux: Of course I was concerned.

Hux: You’re my companion.

Hux: Now tell me what is going on immediately.

Ren: companion

Ren: ha

Hux: Your Emperor just gave you a command, Ren. Obey, or face real punishment. Why have you been out of contact?

Ren: real punishment

Hux: Excuse me?

Ren: I choose real punishment that’s fine

Hux: What? Why? You’re actually refusing to disclose the reason for your silence?

Ren: no but it would be better if I told you in person

Hux: I assure you, this channel is entirely secure. I programmed it myself. Anything you might tell me in person can be communicated safely here.

Ren: well maybe it’s more like

Ren: I would prefer to tell you in person

Hux: Fuck your preferences, I’ve spent the past two cycles wondering if you were dead!

Hux: Tell me. What happened. Now.

Ren: fuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhck

Ren: fine just

Ren: hear me out

Hux: That is precisely what I’m asking to do.

Ren: no I mean

Ren: don’t have a reaction until you’ve heard the whole story

Hux: I will react however I damn well please, now get on with it.

Ren: ok well

Ren: so I was on lamytt looking for the dissidents right

Hux: That is the mission you were assigned, correct. Don’t delay with information I already have, get to the point at once.

Ren: no no I need to like

Ren: start at the beginning

Ren: for this to make sense

Hux: All right, I’m going to stop you for a moment.

Ren: sigh

Hux: If this is going to be some kind of prolonged narrative, before you launch into it as melodramatically and inefficiently as possible I need you to clarity three things.

Ren: what

Hux: First, are you injured?

Ren: no I said I’m fine!

Hux: Ren, I have seen you track blood across my ship and my rooms countless times as you insisted you were fine when in fact you were moments from losing consciousness.

Ren: countless times?

Ren: more like once

Ren: maybe twice if you count the foot thing

Ren: well and that time I came back from setla but we were still under fire I couldn’t like

Ren: just fuck off to medbay

Hux: Countless times, as I said. Next question: Are you presently in some sort of peril?

Ren: I SAID I’M FINE

Ren: THAT MEANS NO PERIL

Hux: Stop this childish imitation of a tantrum at once.

Ren: well it kinda seems like you can’t read lowercase

Hux: Again, your definition of “fine” often quite differs from my own. So I need you to clarify specifically that you are you currently in a secure location and not: (1) under attack; (2) within a structure that is on fire or otherwise deteriorating; or (3) stuck inside a craft that is sinking into a quagmire, etc.?

Ren: a quagmire

Hux: You are sinking into a quagmire at present?

Ren: no but I’m laughing at present

Ren: that’s just a funny word and like

Ren: where would I even find a quagmire

Hux: Your talent for getting into disastrous situations that I would have assumed impossible is unmatched, and I cannot even be sure you are still in the location where you were dispatched, as your tracker is out of range, which brings me to my third pressing question, which is: where are you right now?

Ren: ummmm

Ren: well that’s kinda part of the story

Hux: So you are not on Lamytt.

Ren: mmm yes and no

Hux: Ren.

Ren: hux

Hux: Explain how you can both be on the planet where I sent you and also not there.

Hux: And please do not tell me that you have lost your corporeal form and become one with the Force or some mystical nonsense like that.

Ren: oh no no

Ren: don’t worry hux

Ren: I’m still corporeal

Ren: whole body’s intact

Ren: gonna fuck you real hard with it as soon as I get back

Hux: You presumptive ass. I might be in a meeting when you return to the ship.

Ren: to hell with your meetings

Ren: you’d leave a meeting with tarkin himself to get my dick in you after 14 cycles without it

Hux: That’s woefully inaccurate.

Ren: yeah we’ll see

Ren: i’ll send you dirty thoughts until you get hard under your conference room table and all hot across the back of your neck and you’ve got to make an excuse to get up and find me and get on your knees for me

Hux: I have never been on my knees for you.

Ren: hahaahahahahaaaa

Ren: right

Hux: When. Name one time.

Ren: like every time you beg me to take you from behind?!

Hux: First of all, I do not beg, I instruct.

Hux: And being on all fours is not the same as getting on my knees.

Ren: it is when I’m holding your arms behind your back while I plow you

Hux: In that case I am on my knees for me, not you, because I like the way that position feels.

Hux: It’s not in service of you at all.

Ren: I know you like the way that feels hux

Ren: feels so good, gets you screaming my name

Ren: that’s your version of all caps

Ren: when my dick is so deep in you and you’re getting fucked so right that you can’t use your lowercase voice anymore

Hux: I’m not all that loud.

Ren: HAHAHAHAA

Ren: ok hux

Ren: tell me that next time I’m holding you open with just the tip when you’re close

Ren: when I’m just teasing my cock against your hole and it’s sooo sensitive from being pounded until you were right on the edge

Ren: and you’re crying and shouting and red-faced, telling me you’re gonna execute me if I don’t start fucking you hard again

Hux: I have never done that.

Ren: oh please I jerk off to the memory all the time

Ren: “ren you absolute shit, if you don’t give me what I need I’m putting you out an airlock”

Ren: and I said what do you need, hux

Hux: Oh fucking hell, how have you gotten me this far off subject?

Ren: and you said, “you know what I need, put it in, put it back in, all the way, deep, NOW ren, ram that big cock back into me, do it!”

Hux: I have never, ever referred to it as “that big cock.”

Hux: Of that I am sure.

Ren: well I’m paraphrasing

Hux: REN.

Ren: NOW WE’RE TALKIN! SCREAM IT

Hux: I could fucking murder you right now, I swear to the maker.

Ren: nah

Ren: you’re into it, getting all hot and itchy for me

Ren: spreading your legs a little in your desk chair

Ren: wetting your lips with the tip of your tongue

Ren: I can feel it mhmmm

Hux: Feel it?

Ren: well you know

Ren: emotionally

Hux: Ren.

Ren: hux

Hux: Are you back on the ship already.

Ren: why uh

Ren: would you say that

Hux: Because you just described my last two movements quite specifically.

Hux: And you can normally only sense such things when you are in quite close range.

Ren: I just know you well hux

Ren: especially what you do when you’re on shift and I make you

Ren: aroused

Hux: So you’re not on the ship.

Ren: well

Ren: I didn’t say that

Hux: Enough fucking around, Ren. Tell me what the hell is going on.

Hux: And for fuck’s sake

Hux: If you are aboard the ship

Hux: Come to my office at once.

Ren: oh man hux

Ren: I want to

Ren: so so so bad

Hux: Then why don’t you.

Ren: ummmmm

Ren: well

Ren: I could come there

Ren: but I wouldn’t be bringing the uh

Ren: body you desire with me

Hux: The body I desire.

Ren: yeah

Hux: Your body.

Ren: uh huh

Hux: The one with the flamboyant hair and the massive chest and those dark moles here and there.

Ren: my hair’s not flamboyant but yes

Hux: You are not currently in possession of that body.

Ren: well

Ren: I’ve got it under control

Ren: it’s not going to do anything I don’t want it to do believe me

Ren: it’s just that it’s still on lamytt

Ren: and I think I’m gonna need your help getting it back

Ren: because the person who is SUPPOSED to be helping me is apparently a total fuck up

Hux: What.

Ren: can I get back to my story now?

Hux: Ren.

Ren: HUX??

Hux: What part of you, exactly, is aboard this ship.

Ren: my mind/soul

Ren: also my force powers! luckily

Ren: they are connected to my spirit, not my physical body

Ren: which is a big relief let me tell you

Ren: hux?

Ren: you still there?

Hux: Yes.

Hux: I rarely do this on duty but I just fixed myself a drink.

Hux: Now I am drinking it.

Hux: So if we may continue,

Hux: Might I ask

Hux: Where precisely your mind/soul are located upon my ship at this moment.

Ren: if I tell you you’re gonna come stomping over here

Ren: and it’s gonna be weird as fuck

Ren: and you won’t believe it’s me

Hux: I won’t believe WHAT is you?

Ren: uh well

Ren: it’s more like who

Hux: I don’t understand.

Ren: I know you don’t but I do think you’re gonna have to help me fix it so

Ren: can I just tell you what happened or are you gonna keep interrupting?

Hux: WHEN HAVE I INTERRUPTED

Hux: I HAVE ASKED YOU TEN TIMES TO JUST FUCKING TELL ME

Hux: You are the one who is delaying.

Ren: ugh hux

Ren: not to change the subject again but

Ren: you just made me hard

Ren: giving me the all caps treatment

Ren: cause I’ve been bad

Hux: Ren, I am very rapidly coming to the end of my patience.

Hux: My hands are literally shaking with rage.

Hux: What fucking happened and where aboard this ship can I find you.

Ren: sighhh

Ren: I wish I could let you take your rage out on me hux

Ren: I’d let you spank me til I cried

Hux: That’s a fantastic sentiment, Ren.

Hux: Meanwhile, you have brought actual tears of teeth-grinding frustration to my eyes.

Hux: So I really hope you’re enjoying torturing me.

Hux: Because I am indeed going to return the favor as soon as I’m able.

Ren: aw hux

Ren: I didn’t mean to make you cry I’m sorry

Hux: I’M NOT FUCKING CRYING

Ren: whoa

Hux: Excuse me. I’m not crying. I do feel on the verge of truly losing my mind if this conversation continues, however. I command you to come to my office at once.

Ren: ok hux

Ren: I’m gonna come

Ren: but let me just explain what happened first

Ren: or when I show up it won’t make any sense

Hux: What won’t make any sense?

Ren: what I look like

Hux: I thought you said your body is still on Lamytt, intact and uninjured?

Ren: correct

Hux: So what are you going to look like when you come to my door?

Ren: mitaka

Hux: What about him?

Ren: no that’s

Ren: what I’m gonna look like

Hux: Commander Mitaka?

Ren: that’s the one

Hux: Why would you look like him?

Ren: well because

Ren: I got stuck in his body when I tried to check up on you because I missed you I’m sorry but I’m gonna fix it i promise i just need your help

Ren: hux?

Hux: I got a refill.

Hux: Okay.

Hux: Okay, Ren.

Hux: Assuming that the two of you are not playing some juvenile joke on me, and I don’t think Mitaka would do so, allow me to try and parse this.

Ren: it’s not a joke

Ren: and yeah that guy has no sense of humor

Ren: he’s also an asshole who can’t follow simple directions

Hux: I would disagree with that statement, he’s one of my most loyal officers and almost peerless when it comes to precisely following my orders.

Ren: yeah well

Ren: I’ve been trying to get back in the right body for two cycles

Ren: and he’s been as much help as a dead ewok

Hux: Okay, I again have some questions.

Ren: of course you do

Hux: First question. If you are in my Commander’s body somehow, where in the meantime is he?

Ren: in my body

Ren: and he won’t get out of it

Ren: little fucker

Hux: I had begun to fear that. Okay, let’s continue. Are you telling me that you sent your consciousness away, locked onto Mitaka’s somehow, and then couldn’t reinsert your mind/spirit into your own body?

Ren: yeah

Ren: whoops

Hux: How did that happen, Ren. How.

Ren: like I said

Ren: I missed you

Ren: so I meditated and tried to throw my mind all the way to the ship

Ren: to check on you

Ren: I saw you, it worked

Ren: I realized I was seeing you through Mitaka’s eyes during some fucking meeting

Ren: and then I couldn’t get back out of him

Ren: so now i’m still here

Hux: Then how do you know that he’s in your body and that your body is secure?

Ren: I’m connected to him still

Ren: can hear his thoughts and sense his location etc

Ren: have been trying to tell him to help me fix this

Ren: but he’s all freaked out and shit

Ren: down on lamytt

Ren: in my fucking body

Ren: and I think we need to go get him

Hux: We?

Ren: me and you

Ren: unless you want someone else finding out what happened

Ren: or my reputation as someone who never needs rescuing to be ruined

Ren: the one I spent my whole life building

Ren: I don’t think you want that Hux

Hux: Why didn’t you just go to Lamytt yourself, to retrieve– yourself?

Ren: well because I’m Mitaka

Ren: or anyway I’m…. in him

Ren: so I’d have to get your permission

Ren: and I didn’t want you to find out about any of this

Hux: Ren, I think you need to come here now.

Hux: I can’t talk about this over the network any longer.

Hux: It’s making my head spin.

Ren: ok but

Ren: seeing me like this might make it spin worse

Ren: just saying

Hux: I think I need to see it to believe it.

Ren: ok

Ren: ugh just

Ren: this is hard for me ok

Ren: I mean I’m gonna fix it

Ren: it’s fine

Ren: but until then I’m gonna be like

Ren: shorter than you

Ren: and mitaka has wrinkles :(

Hux: No, he doesn’t, he’s barely thirty years old! Almost ten years younger than you.

Hux: I have never noticed a single wrinkle on his face.

Ren: well he has some little ones near his eyes

Ren: and I don’t look my age and you know it

Hux: Are we really arguing about your vanity when your BODY is alone in the wild on Lamytt and in need of recovery??

Ren: ok fine I’m heading your way

Ren: fuck this is gonna suck

Hux: Probably true.

Hux: Hurry, Ren.

Hux: I’m … concerned for you.

Hux: For your body, I mean.

Hux: And your … more intangible self, too, of course.

Hux: And for poor Mitaka.

Ren: that jerk is fine

Ren: he’s in the body of the most fearsome force using warrior the galaxy has ever known

Ren: who’s gonna mess with him?

Hux: I don’t know, Ren, just get here quickly so we can figure this out.

Ren: ok ok I’m coming

 

**

 

Hux pours himself another drink after terminating the connection with Ren. He feels dizzy, not from the brandy but from the conversation that just ended, and even as he stares at his closed office door, he’s not really expecting Mitaka to be the one who next requests entry. He’s expecting Ren’s face and Ren’s body, Ren’s voice, despite what he’s just been told. It’s not as if he thinks Ren is playing a joke on him. Ren is more fond of direct insults and brazenly obnoxious “humor” than anything so underhanded, but Hux cannot accept the idea that Ren has screwed something up this tremendously. For all the shit Hux gives him, to keep him praise-hungry and as humble as possible, Ren is actually quite competent, especially when it comes to repairing his own emotionally-driven missteps. He’s had a lot of practice in that area.

Therefore, Hux tells himself, his gaze boring into the door, Ren’s inability to fix this in secret over two cycles doesn’t mean that it actually can’t be fixed. Ren simply requires a consultation with Hux, as he often does, to navigate the practical aspects, such as retrieving his physical body. At the thought of it down there on Lamytt, guarded only by a very disoriented Mitaka who is peering out at all potential dangers from Ren’s irreplaceable eyes, Hux rises from his seat and begins to pace. Then comes the chime from the door. Someone is requesting entry.

Hux braces himself, shoulders back and posture perfect. He does not look at the monitor on his desk that shows who is standing outside. He activates the door and keeps his gaze pointed forward, half expecting to see a frightened Mitaka and half expecting Ren to rush into the room and consume him the way that he often does after these absences. 

What he gets instead is Ren’s hungry stare coming from Mitaka’s eyes. It’s somehow Ren, and also not, and Hux has to put one gloved hand over his mouth to keep from making an undignified noise. 

“Yeah,” Ren says-- with Mitaka’s mouth and Mitaka’s voice, though he’s forced the pitch of the latter somewhat deeper. “It’s fucked up.” 

“Get in here,” Hux hisses, stepping out of the way. As Ren-in-Mitaka passes into his office, Hux peers up and down the hallway outside to make sure no one but the silent Imperial Guards stationed outside saw this person who appears to be Commander Mitaka speaking to him so frankly or heard Hux’s fevered response. 

There seems to be no one else around. Hux lingers for a second look, not wanting to turn and face the situation in his office. He steels himself when he does, allowing the door to auto-close, and turns to see the apparent but not actual Commander Mitaka perching one ass cheek on the front of Hux’s desk while gulping down the remains of his third drink. 

“Fuck,” Ren says, wrinkling Mitaka’s nose and scowling at the empty glass. “I don’t know how you can drink this stuff.” 

“Then perhaps don’t gulp it down as if it’s not from a bottle that cost me six hundred credits. Ren! What in the-- What am I supposed to-- What--” 

“I told you,” Ren says, putting the glass down. Something sad and apologetic creeps into his expression, making him look too much like the real Mitaka. “But we’re going to fix it,” he says, looking somewhat like Ren again when he pushes off the desk and stands with Mitaka’s fists at his sides and Mitaka’s shoulders hunching forward as if they are much larger than they actually are. That’s Ren’s posture, at least, though it looks very wrong on Mitaka’s smaller frame. He walks closer, and then too close. 

“I feel ill,” Hux says, backing up until he hits the wall. “That’s-- You, but it isn’t.” 

“I told you it’d be worse if I came here. Look, let’s go down to Lamytt. We’ll get me, and once I’m, you know, here, we can fix this. I’m sure.” 

“You’re sure.” 

“I’m pretty sure.” 

Hux puts his hands over his face and groans. He flinches when Ren reaches for him, and again when Ren grasps his wrists with Mitaka’s small hands. Ren releases him and steps away, pouting. 

“You don’t even smell like you,” Hux complains, his head beginning to ache. He probably drank too much. 

“Of course I don’t.” Ren glares at him. It looks strange on Mitaka’s prim and typically deferential little face, almost funny. “Scent isn’t attached to the spirit, Hux. C’mon, can we book a shuttle? I’m worried about me.” 

“I thought you said you were fine,” Hux says, already racing across the room to call for a shuttle to be readied.

“I’m fine for now, but it would be a comfort to have my body on hand, so to speak. Aboard the Imperial ship, I mean.”  

Hux orders a command shuttle to be readied for him immediately. One benefit of being Emperor is that he doesn’t have to give a reason why or take any personnel in particular down with him. He would normally take at least two Imperial Guards to any place where Ren did not accompany him, but Ren will be with him, sort of, if not as intimidating to potential attackers as usual. 

“Show me you can use the Force,” Hux says, watching Ren from behind his desk as if it’s a shield. “I need to see that before I go down to this planet without a guard detail.” 

Ren rolls Mitaka’s eyes and lifts his hand, then uses the Force to drag Hux forward over his desk, knocking all manner of things onto the floor in the process. He stops just short of bringing Hux all the way to him, perhaps because Hux is cursing him and snarling as if he’s ready to murder Ren, whatever body he’s in. This sort of stunt is far less charming when one of Hux’s officers appears to be performing it. 

“Sorry,” Ren says, though he doesn’t sound like he means it. “But I told you I can use the Force. I wouldn’t lie about that, you ass.” 

“Don’t you _dare_ call me an ass with that man’s mouth!” 

Ren laughs a little. Hux is livid. 

“Soon you’ll find this funny, too,” Ren says. “When we’ve put everything right. Even that humorless shit Mitaka might laugh.” 

Hux doesn’t dignify this false prognostication with a response. This will never be funny. He walks to the door and Ren follows. 

“Remember,” Hux says, turning to sneer at him. “As far as everyone else can see, I’m your Emperor and you are my faithful servant. Behave accordingly.” Ren ought to always do so in public anyway, as the same is technically true of him, but that has rarely been the case except under very ceremonial circumstances that require ring kissing et cetera. 

“Better let me get this out of the way first, then,” Ren says, swooning in as if for a kiss. Hux recoils and scrambles against the wall, horrified. 

“Don’t!” he says when Ren has the nerve to look hurt. “Not with his mouth!” 

“But. It’s been fourteen cycles. And you’re upset. Can I at least put my arms around you?”

“Certainly not!” Hux says, unable to shake the sense that Mitaka is daring to make this request. “Seeing as those are not your arms. The journey to Lamytt is brief, and if your assurances are valid you’ll be able to hold me properly soon, with your own arms. Yes?”

“I guess,” Ren says, muttering. “It’s just hard. You’re right there. I’ve missed you. It hasn’t been easy, these past two days. I had to put in for sick leave as Mitaka because I couldn’t stand to be around you like this, without grabbing at you.” 

“Well, exercise some fucking control. Would you really want Mitaka’s hands all over me? His _mouth_?”

“It doesn’t feel like his mouth when I’m standing here looking at yours and this is the only one available to kiss you with.” 

Hux rolls his eyes. He feels himself flushing, straightens his jacket. “Enough,” he says. “It’s not up for debate. You don’t have Mitaka’s permission to use his body that way, for one.” 

“He wouldn’t mind it, trust me.”

“What’s that’s supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.” Ren snarls; again it looks so strange, coming from someone who appears to be Mitaka, that Hux almost laughs. 

They walk together to the shuttle in silence. Twice Hux wants to stop and whisper that Ren ought to correct his posture, to not take such hulking strides or glare at passerby in a way that Mitaka never would without good reason. He stops himself, relatively certain that Ren won’t be able to help himself anyway, and tells himself that soon this will be set right. He boards the shuttle ahead of Ren and sets a course for Lamytt.

Lamytt is a backwater, the kind of place where only desperate, doomed dissidents would bother to reside. It’s very foggy when the shuttle sets down, and Ren makes some remarks about Hux’s landing that cause his mood to worsen, which he hadn’t thought possible. He longs to see Ren, the real Ren, though this Mitaka-looking person at his side is certainly him: capable of annoying Hux like none other and simultaneously affecting in him a sort of reckless pining that makes him feel like he hardly has control of himself. 

“Lead the way,” Hux says when they’re standing in the choking fog together.

The whole planet smells bad. Ren lifts Mitaka’s shoulders against the cold as he walks. He didn’t think to bring a proper coat. Nor did Hux think to remind him, accustomed as he is to Ren always wearing the same hooded robe that he’s had since they met. That robe is very warm; Hux has been privy to its comforting environs more than once. He feels a heaviness in his heart as he follows Mitaka’s body through the fog toward wherever Ren’s presumably is. He could use the reassuring scent and feel of that robe right now, or that of Ren’s skin. When they find both, neither will be available for Hux to clutch at in desperate relief the way he wants to, unless he wants to end up feeling very awkward around Mitaka from here forward, once order is restored.

“Here,” Ren says when they come to a cave near the mouth of a wide canyon that is filled with a soupy, dark material that smells worse than the fog. “Mitaka!” Ren bellows. “We’re here! You can come out now.” 

Hux braces himself, feeling more queasy about this encounter than he did about receiving Ren as Mitaka. He swallows his confused longing and glances at Ren, wanting to see him as he should be. Ren is at least glowering in a very Ren-like way as they wait for Mitaka to emerge, but on Mitaka’s face this expression seems more petulant than threatening. 

Shuffled footsteps draw Hux’s attention back to the cave. His breath catches when he sees Ren-- Ren’s body, anyway, approaching in a cowed way that Hux hasn’t even seen on Mitaka since the days of Snoke, when Mitaka was a capable but insecure lieutenant. Seeing Mitaka’s frightened, overwhelmed countenance peering out from Ren’s eyes is enough to make Hux want to run forward and gather this man who appears to be his lover into his arms, but he steadies himself. 

“Emperor,” Mitaka says with surprise, breathless and overcome but somehow in Ren’s voice. He drops to a knee and bows his head. Hux can’t remember the last time Ren bowed to him when they weren’t on a stage of some sort, observed by thousands. It’s a heartbreaking sight; even the sight of Ren’s normally beautiful hair matted and dirty is tugging at him. 

“Please, get up,” Hux says. 

“I’m so sorry, sir,” Mitaka says, and when he rises on Ren’s long legs he seems for a moment like he might topple over. “I don’t know how this happened, I wanted to get back to the ship but Lord Ren’s shuttle wouldn’t respond to my voice commands.” Mitaka glances at Ren with something like accusation. “Oh,” he says, seeming to waver on his feet. “That’s-- That’s so incredibly, ah--” 

Mitaka is gaping at the sight of his own body, possessed by Ren, who is not gaping but staring angrily back at Mitaka as he occupies Ren’s body. 

“I told you to use a commanding tone on the voice controls,” Ren says, using Mitaka’s own face to snarl at him. “But apparently that was too much to ask.” 

“I tried, but this isn’t my voice, and the shuttle knew it, you have the sensors set up to be so sensitive--” 

“Are you criticizing my choice of security measures, Commander?”

“Enough,” Hux says, dizzied by the sight of what looks like Mitaka snapping at Kylo Ren as he cowers. “Let’s get off his stinking pit of a planet at once and fix things. Mitaka, come with me. Ren, do you think your shuttle would respond to your voice commands if they came, ah. From that body?”

“Doubtful,” Ren says. “I’ll have to come back for it later.” 

“All right, then we’ll all ride together. Come, Dopheld, and don’t despair. You’ve nothing to apologize for. This is entirely Ren’s fault.” 

Hux turns back for the shuttle, glad to look away from both of them. Ren hurries forward to walk at Hux’s side in Mitaka’s body while Mitaka trails behind them in Ren’s, marching as best he can in regulation fashion while treading in Ren’s far larger feet. Clearly he didn’t do much walking about while hiding in that cave for two cycles. The poor man might have frozen to death if it weren’t for Ren’s robe and for Ren’s body’s tendency to always be overly warm. Hux enjoys a bit of shameless clinging after sex but always has to push Ren away after being held by him for a while, inevitably stuck to him with sweat under the blankets. 

“Have you got a method in mind?” Hux asks, keeping his eyes on the shuttle’s console once they’re all aboard.

“Are you talking to me?” Ren asks. Hearing his words in Mitaka’s voice is doubly disorienting with Mitaka-in-Ren seated behind them in miserable-looking silence. 

“Yes, I’m talking to you!” Hux glares at him, and feels like slapping his sour little face, because it’s Mitaka’s face, and he shouldn’t be allowed to look at his Emperor that way. “Now we’re all reunited, so what’s the plan?” 

“I’m thinking,” Ren says. 

“How did it happen?” Mitaka asks. The meek trepidation with which he speaks in Ren’s voice gives Hux chills. Hux has only seen Ren weep twice the past ten years or so of keeping him regularly on hand as an indispensable companion. It was alarming both times, and Mitaka’s trembling intonation reminds him too much of memories he’d rather not revisit right now. 

“It’s a long story,” Ren says, glowering at the front viewport as they leave Lamytt’s atmosphere. 

“No, it isn’t,” Hux says. “Ren was checking up on me while away--”

“Hux!”

“What? He deserves to know what’s going on, embroiled as he is! Ren was seeking me out through the Force when he saw a vision of me through your point of view, as you were listening to me speak at the time. Through some mistake that followed, he got stuck in your point of view-- in your body, as it happens --thus sending you into his own. What did it feel like for you, might I ask?”

“Ah-- Like I was having a stroke?” Mitaka says. “Not that I’ve ever had one, but. Suddenly I was seeing things, smelling things, and nothing made sense. It felt like dying, I think.” 

Ren snorts and crosses Mitaka’s arms tightly over his chest. “That’s pretty fucking dramatic,” he says. 

“I don’t understand how this could be possible,” Mitaka says. There’s a hint of irritation in his voice, the kind of thing he’d normally be careful not to let show when speaking to Ren. Perhaps being in Ren’s body makes him feel he has the right.

“Of course you don’t understand,” Ren says. “And there’s no point in trying to explain. Once we get back, I’ll meditate. If we sit across from each other in my meditation chamber, that should do the trick.” 

“Good,” Hux says, though his stomach is twisting up with doubt already. “And-- Ren. Once this is put right I’ll need your assurance that you will never attempt something so foolhardy again. You might have thought to check in with me via our comm channel as opposed to these extreme and apparently extremely dangerous means.” 

“I’ve done it before!” Ren’s bellowing rage sounds so strange, coming from Mitaka, that Hux meets it with an angry glower, whereas normally he’d be a mask of stoicism in response to this sort of tantrum. “I’ve done it with no problems.” He turns his glare on Mitaka. “It’s something to do with him. With the way he looks at you.”

“What?” Mitaka goes tense within Ren’s hunched frame. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s far too similar to the way I look at Hux.” 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Hux says, though he has had his own suspicions about Mitaka’s affection for him over the years. There’s no sense in embarrassing the poor man after what he’s already been put through. Hux glares at Ren, hoping to communicate this. Ren’s snarl on Mitaka’s face is again enraging, though when Hux turns back to the console he has to admit that he’s comforted by it, too. Even when it appears on an entirely different face, he’d know Ren’s particular look of sneering disrespect anywhere. That this look from Ren often precedes a round of aggressive, passionate sex sends an unfortunately timed peel of arousal down the backs of Hux’s legs as well. 

Back on the ship, Hux attempts to get some work done during the first hour or so of Ren’s meditation session. Mitaka is with him in his chamber, seated across from him in Ren’s body, presumably fidgeting and sweating and waiting to feel some sign that the transference of their consciousness is working. Hux waits, too, getting little done out in Ren’s main sitting room, his data pad balanced on his lap while he stares at the closed door of the meditation chamber, listening intently for any signs of progress. He hears only silence that makes him feel increasingly uneasy, until finally he gets up and knocks. 

Pounding footsteps approach, and Hux’s heart lifts. That sounds like Ren, like his customary walk. But when the door is thrown open, Mitaka is still glaring at him. Which means he’s not Mitaka, he’s Ren. 

“What?” Ren snaps. 

“I was checking your your progress. Stop looking at me like that.” 

“Sorry.” Ren’s expression softens into something that looks authentically like Mitaka’s, except that he also holds Hux’s gaze in a brazenly intimate way. “Just. It’s not done yet. We’re still working on it. He sucks at meditating.” 

“Hmm.” Hux peers into the room and sees Mitaka seated on the floor in Ren’s body, looking defeated. It’s stiflingly hot in Ren’s chamber as usual, and Mitaka has removed Ren’s shirt. He still looks filthy and broken in a way that tugs on Hux’s heart and makes him want to soothe his hands over those bare shoulders, to take Ren’s tired body into a bath and clean his lank hair. When he shifts his gaze back to Ren-in-Mitaka, his expression is displeased again. 

“I sense you wanting him,” Ren says, teeth grit. “Shallow slut.” 

Hux slaps Mitaka’s face hard, reacting on pure instinct. Behind them, the actual Mitaka gasps in horror. He almost looks like he’s going to leap up to defend his body from the Emperor’s attack. Hux’s face is red; Ren spoke softly enough that to Mitaka it must have looked like his body was attacked unprovoked. Ren looks almost pleased when Hux meets his eyes again. 

“I’m sorry about that,” Hux says, speaking to Mitaka while Ren goes on staring at him. “This is-- A very perplexing situation, and Ren is not being helpful.” 

“You’re not being helpful,” Ren says, and then, in Hux’s head: _Stop looking at him like that_. 

It’s comforting to hear Ren’s actual voice in his mind, as much as Hux normally dislikes having it thrust there. He raises his lip at Ren and responds, hoping that he won’t inadvertently send this thought to Ren’s body, and therefore to Mitaka.

_I’m not looking at him like anything. I’m fucking confused, give me a break._

_Lies. You’re looking at him like maybe you’d enjoy this combination in a permanent fashion. Your docile admirer in my body. Ha. I might have known._

“This is absurd,” Hux says aloud, fighting to keep his expression as neutral as possible; his cheeks are still burning with humiliation after letting himself do something so unhinged in Mitaka’s view, and to Mitaka’s innocent face. “We’re all exhausted, and your body looks in such poor condition that I’m worried about your health. Let Dopheld shower and rest for a moment before this continues. I could use a rest myself, as I suspect you could.” _Since you’re acting like a jealous lunatic_ , he adds, staring at Ren to make sure he’s heard this part. _Regarding a situation you created._

“I don’t want him touching my body when he cleans it,” Ren says, turning to Mitaka, who looks near tears.

“You’d prefer to clean it yourself, with his hands?” Hux scoffs; he won’t allow this. He hates the idea of Mitaka’s hands on Ren’s body, too, and to him it seems more distasteful if they are Mitaka’s literal hands, not the ones that belong to Ren but which are currently possessed by Mitaka. 

“I wouldn’t do anything-- untoward,” Mitaka says, sounding offended. He rises, still somewhat unsteady on Ren’s legs, holding Ren’s filthy tunic in his hands. “And I do feel like I can’t think straight. I feel-- I hate this, this smell.” 

“That’s Lamytt,” Ren snaps. “Not me.”

“I didn’t say it was you!” 

“Silence, both of you!” Hux can’t bear the sight of them shouting at each other, the disorienting back and forth of it making him dizzy. “Dopheld, go to Ren’s washroom and clean yourself-- That is, clean Ren up, please.”

“I don’t want him alone in any of my rooms,” Ren says. 

“Well, what’s the alternative, Ren? He could shower in my quarters, I suppose--”

Ren turns and punches the wall, shouting in pain when Mitaka’s small fist doesn’t do the kind of damage he’d like, instead turning the damage back upon the physical body he’s currently occupying.

“Please!” Mitaka grabs two handfuls of Ren’s dirty hair and turns to Hux. “Please, Emperor, please tell him not to do that, ah. To my body.” 

“Ren, that’s enough.” 

Ren has turned Mitaka’s back on both of them, and the way his shoulders are heaving makes Hux want to go to him and hold him. He knows that posture, that sense of fear and defeat that creeps into Ren only rarely, but so powerfully when it does. 

“Let’s relocate to my rooms,” Hux says, though he hates the thought just as much as Ren does: Mitaka seeing all of his private things, using his luxurious shower to clean the body that Hux feels belongs to him more than to anyone. Ren’s body has been Hux’s most precious source of comfort for so long, his most intimate possession. “If anyone inquires, I can tell them that Mitaka is assisting with a highly confidential project. Obviously, you won’t go and stay in his quarters,” he says to Ren, who is still sulking. “And hopefully it won’t matter soon. After we’ve all taken a moment to clear our heads, the meditation will be more effective.” 

He has no idea if that’s true, but he needs to believe it or he’ll drop to the floor and despair. They move to Hux’s quarters, Hux trying to keep his chin lifted. Ren’s quarters are close enough to his own that they only get a few curious looks on the way there. 

Once inside, Mitaka goes into the washroom to clean Ren’s body. Hux wants to go with him, to supervise, and he can see that Ren wants that, too. He’s pacing the floor in Mitaka’s body, arms crossed over his narrow chest. 

“When’s the last time you slept?” Hux asks. 

“I tried a few times,” Ren says. “It doesn’t feel right, like this. I wake up and panic.”

“Oh-- Ren. Come here.” 

Ren freezes and looks at Hux, little shoulders lifting. He doesn’t protest when Hux goes to him instead, or when Hux touches Mitaka’s face and abruptly takes his hand away.

“That’s-- Too strange,” Hux says, trying to bury the tremor in his voice. He wants to wail. Ren has to fix this. 

“I know,” Ren says. He reaches for Hux and then shakes his head, pulls his hands back. “I just want to collapse against you, hold you, but. You’re bigger than me.” 

“Hardly-- I’m taller, but. It’s not you, this-- This isn’t permanent. Once he’s freshened up he’ll be able to help you put it right.” 

Ren pinches Mitaka’s eyes shut and winces. When he nods tiredly he doesn’t look remotely confident that he’ll be putting anything right anytime soon. 

“You’d better get him some clothes,” Ren says miserably. “Some of mine.” 

Hux nods and goes to the massive walk-in closet that’s fit for an Emperor, far bigger than his old General’s rooms onboard the _Finalizer_. Though he has a proper Imperial palace and many satellite residences, he’s always preferred to live aboard his armored ship, the jewel of his fleet, personally designed by him and constantly on the move within the familiar expanse of conquered space. Hux insists that he chose the name _Enforcer_ , though to this day Ren claims he’s the one who came up with that name while they were drinking. Ren’s things have increasingly occupied the shelves and hanging rows of his closet here over the years, along with every other corner of Hux’s life. In a moment of half-awake madness, Hux presses his face into the row of hanging tunics that smell faintly of Ren and inhales, hugging them against him. He tells himself to snap out of it as he gathers things for Mitaka to wear. It’s not as if Ren is _dead_. He’s right out there in the sitting room, just wearing the wrong body. 

When Hux returns, Ren has collapsed onto his bed. He’s not sleeping, but he’s pretending to, and he looks so like plain old Mitaka with his eyes closed that Hux is startled into something like relief when he sees Mitaka emerging shyly from the washroom with a towel around Ren’s perfect waist. His energy is very un-Ren-like as he peers around the room with caution and curiosity, and he looks like he might lose his composure again when he sees Ren on the bed, resting there within his own body. 

“That’s so--” Mitaka flinches when Hux comes forward to offer the clothes. He looks again at his body as drops of water roll down from Ren’s hair and over Ren’s chest. “Has anything like this ever happened to the two of you?” he asks. “Switching places?”

“No,” Hux says. “I’m sorry, again. I promise we’ll put things right, no lasting damage done.”

“Thank you,” Mitaka says, very softly, and he takes the stack of clothes Hux offers. “Sir.” 

Hux sits on the bed beside Ren while Mitaka dresses in the washroom. Just trying to mentally parse who is doing what is making Hux’s head hurt, and there’s another ache opening inside him as he stares at Mitaka’s body on the bed, sprawling across the Emperor’s sheets as if he has a right to be there. He does, because he’s Ren, but everything in Hux objects to the sight even so. 

Mitaka emerges in Ren’s clothes and lingers sheepishly near the washroom. He flinches when Ren moans from within his body and pushes up onto his elbows, doing an arched, twitching thing with his ass that he probably shouldn’t be doing in view of Mitaka. Or at all, in present circumstances. The posture is very familiar to Hux. Generally it indicates that Ren wants to be fucked.

“What-- What now?” Mitaka asks. 

“You can rest on my sitting room sofa,” Hux says. It’s sumptuous, but somewhat on the small side for Ren’s lanky body. Hux will not be inviting Mitaka into his bed under any circumstances, however, though it’s certainly big enough for the three of them. 

“Yes, sir,” Mitaka says, bringing Ren’s voice down to a whisper. There’s something angry in it, but Hux puts that aside for now. Mitaka surely hasn’t slept in two days, having been left alone in that cave, in a strange body. He’s been a good sport so far, considering. 

When Mitaka has passed into the sitting room, Hux slumps down beside Ren and stares at him, trying to find him in Mitaka’s eyes. It’s hard to do, with Ren looking so sleepy inside this disguise. Mitaka does have a few wrinkles, very small and just beside his eyes. 

“I want you so much,” Ren says. “It’s burning in me, keeping me awake.” 

“Maybe--” Hux shakes his head when he hears what he almost suggested. He’s very tired, too. “Just sleep. When we wake, we’ll fix things.” 

“If I-- If I rolled over, if you held me from behind. Would that be too strange?” 

“Lights,” Hux says, speaking to his voice controlled environs, “Zero percent.” 

All illumination in his grand bedroom snaps off. There’s still a faint glow coming from the attached sitting room and washroom, where Mitaka left the lights on after dressing. Ren rolls over, showing Hux the diminutive curve of Mitaka’s back. Hux feels repulsed, but Ren needs him. He scoots forward with a sigh and puts his hand on Mitaka’s shoulder.

“Oh,” Hux says, dread sinking deeply into him. “Ren-- Your arms.” He withholds the remainder of that statement, which may have amounted to something like, _I can’t live without them_. 

“They’re in the other room if you require them,” Ren says, sounding angry again. 

“Don’t be stupid. Do you really want me to hold you when you’re-- Him?”

“I’m not him. Do whatever you want, Emperor.”

What he really wants to do is not available, so Hux girds his loins and moves against Mitaka’s smallish body, tucking one arm across his chest. Ren pushes back against the heat of him greedily, holds his forearm in place and huffs out some anxious little breaths. Mitaka’s heart is beating fast, according to Ren’s use of it.

“I’m sorry,” Ren whispers, softly. He sounds too much like Mitaka. 

“Shhh.” Hux tugs him a little closer, heartsick for the bulk of Ren’s real body, so close at hand but so impossibly far, with Mitaka occupying it. “Get some rest, Kylo,” Hux says, very quietly. 

Ren whimpers in gratitude at the sound of his name and squirms back against him again. Hux is almost tired enough to imagine things are as they should be as he finally slips into sleep. 

His dreams are uniquely horrible. He dreams that Ren is stuck in a series of increasingly upsetting bodies: Brendol’s, Leia Organa’s, then a disgusting Hutt with a massive, drooling mouth. Hutt-Ren licks his slit-mouth and beckons for Hux to come closer, begging, saying he needs Hux and calling him a shallow slut when he hangs back. 

Hux wakes up and moves away from Mitaka’s slumbering body, his heart sinking as he remembers that his nightmares reflect reality at present. He leans over to observe Mitaka’s resting face and wonders if something as both him and Ren getting real rest might have put things right; maybe it was only that Ren was trying too hard before. It’s a hallmark of Ren’s occasional failures: he panics when something finally doesn’t come easily to him, does too much to overcompensate, then rights things once he eases back into his fluency in his own power. Hux slips out of the bed and walks toward the sitting room, checking over his shoulder as he goes. Mitaka’s body does not stir. 

Sprawled upon the sitting room sofa, Ren’s body looks far too inviting. The heaviness in Hux’s chest seems to increase tenfold as he stands on the plush carpet and waits for some signal that will tell him what to do next. He hasn’t felt this unsure of himself since his initial days of plotting Snoke’s demise. Without Mitaka’s mousy intonations and nervous posture, that is _clearly_ Ren.

“Ren?” Hux whispers. He feels like a fool but can’t resist. Ren’s body doesn’t stir, aside from the regular rise and fall of his chest, which Hux desperately wants to lay his weary head upon. 

He pokes Ren’s shoulder, homesick for the sturdy shape of it. Ren-- or Mitaka? --makes a familiar snuffling sound that pours hope into Hux’s chest, and he kneels beside the couch, considering as he does that he recently claimed that he’s never been on his knees for Ren. 

“Ren,” he says again, more insistently. “Wake up. It’s me. Are you back?” 

Another poke to Ren’s shoulder rouses him. 

Only it isn’t him. Hux can tell as soon as he jerks away and peers at Hux with his eyebrows softly arching instead of jutting inward as they would have if Hux had awakened Ren from a deep sleep. They don’t because this isn’t Ren: it’s Mitaka.

“Sir?” Mitaka says. He lifts Ren’s hands and sighs when he sees they’re not his own. 

“Never mind,” Hux says, rising to his feet. His face is hot; hopefully Mitaka won’t notice in the low light. “You can go back to sleep. I was just-- Checking.” 

“Oh, ah-- Sir, might I ask you something?” 

“You may ask.” Hux pinches the bridge of his nose. He can’t take much more of this. 

“Ah, if I’m-- That is-- If Ren stays with you here, in your rooms, in my body, what will people think?” 

“Leave that to me, Commander. Regardless, I expect you to remain in my presence while you’re occupying his body. It’s not that I don’t trust you, just-- For my peace of mind.” 

“Yes, sir. What, though-- What will my more intimate associates be lead to believe?” 

“Give me a moment or two to work that out, will you?” 

Hux realizes how harsh he sounds when he sees Ren’s shoulders curl inward. If this were actually Ren, he would be leaping up to shout some refutation in Hux’s face. Hux can’t muster much sympathy for Mitaka as he leaves the room, though he knows he should try harder to do so.

He’s again startled by the sight of Mitaka’s body in his bed. Ren appears to be half-awake within it, blinking heavily as Hux climbs over him. 

“Where’d you go?” Ren asks. He rolls toward Hux and smells altogether wrong, though not entirely unpleasant. 

“I didn’t go anywhere. I was hoping maybe sleep would have righted things. Wishful thinking.” 

“Is he in there?” Ren glances at the lighted doorway to the sitting room.

“Yes, Ren, of course.” 

Ren sighs. He scoots toward Hux, needy. Hux resists the urge to move away but doesn’t touch him.

“I had a thought,” Ren says. “You won’t like it.” 

“I don’t know how much more I can take right now of things I won’t like.” 

“Well. Then I’ll reserve my suggestion for another time.” 

“Just spit it out, Ren. Has it to do with fixing this?”

“Yes.”

“Go on, then.” 

“Just know, before I say this, that I don’t like the idea any more than you do.”  

Hux braces himself. Ren’s bolder plans are often effective, but Hux is typically resistant to them in theory, especially when they involve risk to Ren’s physical body, which this likely will. 

“Mitaka wants you,” Ren says, whispering. “I’ve sensed it before. I think that’s why I got stuck in him. He felt my presence without knowing what it was-- He only knew that it felt like a kind of comfortable entitlement, regarding you, and he clung to it.” 

“That’s ridiculous,” Hux says, though perhaps it isn’t. It’s so hard to tell, in Ren’s realm, even after all these years. “You’re not entitled to me, for one thing.” 

“Shut up, you know what I mean.” 

“In fact I rarely do. What’s your suggestion, then? That I fuck one of you, like this?” He scoffs and rubs his hand over his face. “Or both of you?”

When he looks at Ren again he sees it, clear and familiar even across Mitaka’s features: through his sarcastic, worst-case-scenario hyperbole, Hux has accurately guessed Ren’s plan.

“No,” Hux says. “Don’t be disgusting. No!” 

“He wouldn’t object, if that’s your concern.” 

“As if that would be my concern! Ren, you-- You’re out of your mind. Literally and otherwise. Go back to sleep. When you wake up after proper rest you’ll realize how insane you’re being.” 

“I’ve had proper rest, and it’s not entirely insane. Think about it, Hux. Suspend your emotional response and consider it on a logical level. Me and Mitaka are both tense and overly aware of our physical selves at present. I can instruct my mind to unattach from my physical burdens, but Mitaka can’t. Not like this, anyway. Not unless, perhaps, he lets go in another sort of way.” 

“Ren--”

“I told you, I don’t like it either. I hate it! But now that I’ve had some time to think about the origin of this mishap and the role of freeing the mind from the body’s restraints in correcting it-- Hux, I think this is the solution.” 

“Like hell. There’s got to be another way.” 

“Yeah? Get back to me when you’ve come up with it.” 

Ren rolls away angrily and Hux lets the subject die, his heart pounding with an uncomfortable combination of horror and curiosity at the very suggestion. He’s not prudish about including others when it feels right, but can’t imagine how anything could feel right if Ren wasn’t occupying his own body during sex. 

The remainder of the cycle plays out without further incident or any progress, and finally Hux can no longer avoid his duties as Emperor. Some who have hold the kind of power he does rule from afar, making only the occasional ceremonial appearance in their subjects’ lives, but Hux has never liked operating that way and will not fall to it now, even with his personal life crumbling in the most ludicrous way possible behind closed doors. He dresses in his standard attire, with a few flourishes but nothing so ostentatious as to suggest that this isn’t a normal workday or that he’s in any particular sort of mourning. He instructs Mitaka and Ren to remain in his rooms until his return, and to not kill each other.

“As if he’s any sort of threat to me,” Ren says, attempting to use Mitaka’s voice to issue this warning in a growl and largely failing. “Do not forget that I still have the Force.” He turns to Mitaka after saying so.

“I haven’t forgotten,” Hux says. “Just-- Meditate, whatever. Mitaka, try your hardest. Your Emperor is counting on you.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

Mitaka is standing glumly in Ren’s body, worrying at the ends of Ren’s sleeves with Ren’s big fingers. Hux can’t stand looking at him inside Ren another second, and the sight of Ren’s glower on Mitaka’s face is even worse. It’s a relief to leave them at first, but the farther he walks from his rooms, unquestioning members of the Imperial guard at his side, the more he begins to feel like he left a wild animal and a defenseless child alone in his quarters and that he should expect significant bloodshed and smashed belongings when he returns.

It’s not as bad as that, but the mood in his quarters is as dense as choking fog as soon as he crosses the threshold at the end of the cycle, thick with tension and dread. Hux pours himself a drink before even unclasping his modest everyday cape from his shoulders. Predictably, Ren approaches first. He’s dressed himself in some of his own clothing, which is comically large on the body he’s currently inhabiting, and has rolled up the sleeves on his tunic so they won’t hang over Mitaka’s delicate hands.

“No change in status, I take it?” Hux says after he’s taken a generous sip from his glass. 

“What the hell do you think?” Ren asks. “Would Mitaka’s lousy ass still be in your rooms if we’d undone this?” 

“Stop it,” Hux snaps, lip raising. “Even in your own body I wouldn’t allow you to speak to me this way.”

“Yeah, yeah. If I was in my body you’d probably tell me to get on the bed on all fours so you could spank me for insolence--”

“Enough!” 

Hux feels his face heating; it’s as if Mitaka is smugly announcing that he knows of Hux’s predilections in the bedroom, and as he may be lurking in Ren’s body just around the corner, perhaps now he does. Ren huffs as if he’s sensed this concern and lets Mitaka’s shoulders drop with what looks a bit like apology. 

“Have you reconsidered my suggestion?” Ren asks. 

“No.” Hux drinks what’s left in his glass and pours more. “We’re hardly that desperate yet.” 

“Speak for yourself. Hux, I need my body back. I need my _self_ back, and you--”

“Do you think I’m not suffering, too? Where is Dopheld, meanwhile, and your body therefore?” 

“Sulking in your private study.” 

“You let him in there?” Hux slams his glass down. “Ren, whatever are you here for except to keep an eye on him? There is highly classified material in there, only for the eyes of those well above his station!” 

Hux hurries to his study, Ren following. When the door slides open, Mitaka is not browsing confidential files or even wanking to Hux’s private collection of pornography. He’s using what appears to be one of Hux’s handkerchiefs to mop at his leaking eyes. 

“Oh-- Sir, I’m sorry,” Mitaka says, hurrying to stand. He sniffles and makes Ren’s posture very rigid in a way that looks unnatural, also somewhat painful. “Sir, I-- Don’t mean to, ah. Disappoint you, and I feel that I have--” 

“It’s all right,” Hux says, probably unwisely. Officers like Mitaka respond more favorably to unwavering demands, but this situation is hardly one that Hux was able to prepare for in his Academy leadership classes or through his otherwise impressively varied experience of actual ruling. “We’ll just-- Leave you, if you need a moment to compose yourself. Then I’ll expect you to join Ren and I for dinner and discussion about how to move forward. At ease, Commander.”

Hux leaves him in the study without really thinking about it, almost goes back to tell Mitaka to sulk elsewhere and then decides it’s pointless. Rapidly, many things are beginning to feel pointless, which angers him. He’s been unsettled by Ren’s long absences before, but this is something far more distracting and demoralizing. Ren is here, lurking at his side even now, and it’s the not being able to have him while he’s so close that is already driving Hux mad.

“What a fucking baby,” Ren says when they’re alone together in Hux’s bedchamber. 

“As the person who victimized him, I don’t believe that’s for you to decide,” Hux says, though a part of him agrees. Mitaka is a hardened Imperial Commander who has been with them since the beginning; he courageously joined them when they were an upstart power after the assassination of Snoke. He has been tested by the fires of war and by Ren himself, and he is known on the bridge for remaining calm under pressure in a way that resembles the Emperor’s own demeanor, by his example. “Admittedly,” Hux says, unclipping his cape at last, “That outburst was-- Strange, in my view.” 

“Let me,” Ren says, crossing the room to help with the cape. It’s a kind of ritual they have after normal working hours, at the close of the day, often before they slip into Hux’s giant bathtub together and luxuriate in the feeling of each other’s wet skin as they share various complaints and successes from the day. Ren folds the cape, giving Hux a sad Mitaka-resembling look in the mirror when their eyes meet. 

“Thank you,” Hux says. His mouth feels dry. What he would give to even cram himself into a military-issue sonic shower with Ren right now, and feel Ren’s real body pressed against his own.

The meal that the three of them share later that evening is the most awkward of Hux’s long career, and he has known many a nightmarish diplomatic tension over unpleasant exotic cuisine. Normally when Ren dines with him they have service droids moving to and fro, clearing dishes and pouring refills, but as of yesterday no one is allowed inside Hux’s quarters except Commander Mitaka and Lord Ren, not even droids, and the silence that hovers over their meal is so eerie that for a moment Hux actually considers putting on some music. Then he realizes that would be far more awkward. 

“Have either of you felt even a tingling sort of-- Beginning of a connection, or--” Hux hears himself and frowns. He’s never been able to articulate his thoughts well when it comes to inquiries about the Force. “Nothing?” he says more sharply, looking from Ren to Mitaka. 

“I haven’t felt anything,” Mitaka says when Ren just glowers, allowing Mitaka’s posture to remain vulture-like as he hunches over his food. 

“You know what must be done,” Ren says, very gravely. He tears a roll in half and then throws both halves down onto his plate. “You feel it, as I do.” 

“What-- Sir?” Mitaka looks from Hux to Ren and back again when they only snarl at each other in silence, Hux waiting to hear Ren’s actual voice in his mind. 

_I sense your curiosity, Emperor_ , Ren sends. _And you’ve been accessing memories of the last time we shared someone together_. 

“It’s not the same thing, what you’re suggesting!” 

Hux brings his hand to his mouth; he didn’t mean to say that out loud. Sending thoughts to Ren while he looks like Mitaka is not easy. He clears his throat, puts his shoulders back and releases a steadying breath. 

“No,” he says, as measuredly as he can. “We will not be going forward with that plan.” 

_And you better not have fucking mentioned it to him, Ren._

_Mentioned fucking, you mean?_

_Enough._

“Never mind,” Hux says. “Just-- Stay out of my hair tonight, both of you. I have further work to do.” 

Hux shoves his plate away and flees to his bedchamber. 

As he’s reviewing the day’s mundane data pad business he notices a direct communication from Commander Thanisson, another loyal officer who followed Hux and Ren in his youth. Hux has always trusted him to do his job but has never had much personal interaction with the man, so he’s somewhat affronted by Thanisson’s request to have a personal audience with His Excellence Emperor Hux. He’s not inclined to indulge anyone’s request for an audience at the moment, let alone one of his underlings. He sends a curt response that will likely terrify the Commander:

_Regarding what, may I ask?_

“What are you doing?” Hux asks when Ren comes in and yanks a blanket off the bed, then a pillow. 

“I’m not sleeping in here,” Ren says. 

Hux laughs. “Where, then? Are you having a slumber party with your body in the sitting room? Going ahead with your brilliant plan without me?” 

“Fuck you!”

Hearing this in Mitaka’s voice still gets Hux angry enough to want to tackle him and bring him personally to the ship’s brig for treasonous speech. Instead, he lets Ren stalk out without protesting further. Good, Hux thinks, that he won’t have to feign interest in offering Ren comfort while he resides in Mitaka’s body. His bones felt all wrong under Hux’s weight, delicate and pinched, and his skin wasn’t overly warm in the way Hux is realizing now that he quite likes, even if he has to push that heat away from him in the middle of the night if he hopes to get any sleep. 

Strange dreams come again. Hux is wandering the halls of his grandest Imperial Palace in most of them, looking desperately for Ren, only to turn a corner and find himself back on the _Finalizer_ , or in Snoke’s fortress, or a filthy tavern on an Outer Rim planet. In each location there is the rumor of Ren, a faint hint of him nearby like a scent carried by breeze, but as soon as Hux pursues him the atmosphere shifts again, and everywhere he remains out of sight. These dreams take a disturbing turn when Hux runs through a swampy backwater planet and sees a light up ahead, only to find himself again in his bedchamber aboard the _Enforcer_. He’s enormously relieved to find Ren waiting for him there, naked in bed and smiling with inviting ease, but this relief is quickly eclipsed by dragging disappointment when Hux realizes that’s not Ren at all: it’s still Mitaka, fucking Mitaka, and Ren is here, too, but in Mitaka’s body. He’s also naked, also approaching the bed. 

“Come here, my love,” Ren says, in Mitaka’s voice, beckoning with Mitaka’s little finger. “We’re waiting for you.” 

“I prepared myself for you, my Emperor!” the other Mitaka says, also in his own voice, and Hux realizes he is not Ren in Mitaka’s body, just another Mitaka. When he looks back to the one occupying Ren’s body, he now looks like Mitaka, too. The second one joins him and there are two Mitakas in Hux’s bed, erect and writhing, opening their legs for him and moaning as if they are in a great need. Whatever remains of Ren is nowhere to be seen.

Hux wakes from this dream with a sharp intake of breath and curses himself when he realizes he’s hard as a fucking rock under the blankets. 

It’s simply been too long since he allowed himself any sort of release. He thinks of inviting Ren in to watch him masturbate, but in the current situation that would likely kill his arousal. He slides his hand under his blanket, into his sleep pants, and moans with frustration as he pumps himself, trying to think about anything other than what it would be like to have Ren’s and Mitaka’s mouths on his cock at the same time. 

Inappropriate, unprofessional, even dangerous: that’s what it would be. And yet that is the mental image he holds onto desperately as he finally, finally builds toward a needed climax. 

Ren is in the doorway moments afterward. He’s still in Mitaka’s body, of course, but he’s breathing in a very loud, Ren-like way. 

“Get out,” Hux says, his voice thick, chest jittery as he recovers. 

“I sensed--” Ren doesn’t need to say it. He sensed Hux’s orgasm from the next room and came running. Hux allows his gaze to slide downward, to Mitaka’s crotch, and he’s not surprised to see a tented erection there. 

“Don’t touch that thing,” Hux says, heart sinking. “I won’t allow it.” Not when he so desperately wants Ren’s real hands on his own cock. It’s not fair, the thought that Ren might pleasure Mitaka’s instead, even by the wrong hands and with Ren himself as the recipient of the resulting pleasure.   

“I wasn’t going to,” Ren says, glowering. “I know about depriving myself. I’m not weak.” 

“Then why’ve you come in here?” 

“I don’t know. It-- Pulled at me. Your-- How you get. After you come.” 

Hux moans and rub a hand over his face. “How do I get?”

“Like-- Shaky. Vulnerable. I came to protect you.” 

“From what? Keep your voice down! Is Mitaka out there?” 

“He’s asleep.” 

“He might only be pretending,” Hux says in a whisper.

Ren snarls and leaves, walking in a strange side-to-side shuffle with Mitaka’s cock still hard in his pants.

Hux sleeps thinly for the remainder of his shift and wakes when he hears a message arriving on his data pad. Giving up on anything resembling real rest, he reaches for it and opens a response from Commander Thanisson. 

_It’s regarding Commander Dopheld Mitaka, your Excellence._

“Fuck,” Hux mutters. He throws the data pad onto the bed and gets up to have a shower.

When he’s dressed for the day he emerges from his bedchamber to find Mitaka and Ren loitering uncertainly in his sitting room. Ren is wearing one of his own tank tops, which hangs unattractively over Mitaka’s slight chest and shoulders, and Mitaka’s uniform pants, presumably several days unwashed at this point. To Hux’s knowledge, Ren hasn’t been to Mitaka’s quarters since his initial visit to Hux’s office in Mitaka’s body. 

“I have an appointment,” Hux announces. He could hardly decline Thanisson’s request once he saw what the subject matter was. “And other responsibilities, as you know. I know you’re both feeling discouraged, but I ask again that you try your best to--”

“We could,” Ren snaps. “If you’d let us.” 

“How--” Mitaka begins to say. He glances at Hux nervously. “Sir? Is there something more I should be doing? I don’t mind going, ah. Above and beyond, as you know.” 

“Did you tell him?” Hux snaps at Ren, heat rising up toward his throat.

“No.” Ren smirks. Hux wants to slap him again, to hell with Mitaka’s innocent face. “I’d really prefer _you_ tell him, Emperor, once you’re desperate enough to believe that I know what the fuck I’m talking about.” 

“I don’t understand,” Mitaka says. 

“I’m late for my appointment!” Hux says. He points at Ren, sticking his finger in Mitaka’s still-too-smug face. “Do not say a word to him about your crackpot theories in my absence. I’ll reevaluate them later if the need arises. In the meantime, do your best to right this without resorting to undignified-- things.” 

_Things just undignified enough to inspire your sex dreams_ Ren sends as Hux stomps away.

Hux doesn’t respond, verbally or otherwise. His face is flaming as he meets his guards, and he takes the long way toward his meeting with Thanisson, waiting to feel the heat drain from his cheeks before he faces the Commander.

By the time he enters the ship’s Imperial Receiving Chamber he’s mostly regained his composure. He’s not looking forward to whatever Thanisson has to say about Mitaka and his recent absence from Command, but he has prepared a statement and will not be shaken by any doubt that Mitaka’s fellow Commander should dare to evidence in his presence. He plans to keep the meeting brief.  

“Your Excellence!” 

Thanisson sounds almost surprised to see him. He bows in the customary way and Hux feels irritated by the gesture, though he would have been livid if it were not performed. 

“Yes, here I am,” Hux says when the guards have exited through the doors behind him. “I don’t have much time, but your request intrigued me. What have you to tell me about Commander Mitaka?” 

He can feel a faint flush return to his cheeks after he’s said the name, maybe just because of his dream last night, which haunts him even now. Thanisson straightens and swallows. He’s a frail-looking man in some ways, thin and wan and boyish, and that might be why Hux has a kind of sympathy for him even now. Hux was much the same until his late twenties. He still might be accused of remaining on the thin side, and his pallor isn’t always as healthy-looking as he’d like it to be. 

“I do apologize for troubling you, your excellency.” 

“You may call me sir when we’re aboard this ship,” Hux says briskly. He’d actually prefer it in all cases, still very much a military man at heart, but there are certain traditions to uphold, and ceremony works wonders. 

“Sir,” Thanisson corrects, nodding to himself. He either isn’t prone to flushing or isn’t embarrassed by whatever he’s about to bring to Hux’s attention. “Again, I am sorry to trouble you, but none of my requests for information from lower offices have been fruitful, and I’ve grown very concerned about Commander Mitaka, as he has registered for sick leave but has not been to the medbay, according to their records. And in fact I cannot find him-- Anywhere, of late. At all.” 

“Ah.” This was more or less the commentary Hux had expected. “Well, I assure you, he is perfectly well and in fact has been closely in my employ, busy with a confidential project I’ve assigned to him. It requires him to stay entirely out of sight, at present. Repeating this information would be high treason, Commander, but if anyone else should find themselves concerned or perhaps curious as to Mitaka’s current whereabouts, you have my permission to tell them that he is well and will soon return to duty. Understood?” 

“Yes, sir. Understood, sir.” 

And yet there seems to be something more that Thanisson wants to ask. Hux might not have access to the Force, but he’s good at reading people and especially his closest military servants. 

“Was there something else?” Hux asks after Thanisson’s lip has twitched. 

“No-- No, sir, thank you, sir. Thank you for addressing my concerns. Commander Mitaka is-- A valued, ah. Member of my team. The team-- Your team, sir.” 

“I’m well aware. This is why I selected him for this project. You are dismissed, Commander.” 

Though Hux considers the encounter well-managed, he spends the remainder of the day fretting and unsettled. They can only keep up this charade for so long before whispers of Mitaka’s secret duties for the Emperor spread. He trusts Thanisson not to gossip, but it seems Mitaka’s absence is keenly felt already, and it’s only a matter of time before someone on the staff notes that droids have not been allowed entry into the Emperor’s personal quarters for some days. Hux paces in the receiving chamber and tries not to think of his dream or of Ren’s proposal, but by the end of his working day he has begun grinding his teeth, unable to think of much else. 

Finally he comes to a decision about what Ren suggested, considering it in desperation as a strategic move: a risk, perhaps, but a minimal one, considering the potential reward of being able to put all this behind them. He returns to his rooms with a plan in mind, feeling somewhat better for having one at all but mostly nervous about how he’ll admit to Ren that he’s willing to try this, let alone what happens next. 

The atmosphere of his rooms is much like the day before: grim, quiet, pervaded with a sense of dread. Hux is alarmed to find neither Ren nor Mitaka seems to be in a hurry to greet him, and after considering his wet bar he decides to go looking for them before pouring himself a drink. He suspects he’ll need at least three to go through with this. 

He ends up finding both Ren and Mitaka in his study, keeping a distance from each other but otherwise sitting in seemingly companionable silence. Ren’s ungainly shape is wedged into the windowseat that looks out on space while Mitaka pursues a holorecord. Ren is at Hux’s desk, reading data pages on Hux’s workstation. He must have used his own fingerprint to activate it, thereby enlisting the help of Mitaka. Hux takes a deep breath and allows both of them to stare at him for a moment. Ren has Mitaka’s features pinched into a testy expression, while Mitaka uses Ren’s face to give Hux the same open, pleading look that has unsettled him since this all began. 

“I don’t know about the two of you,” Hux says. “But I’m tired of this. It cannot go on.” 

“Agreed,” Ren says. 

Mitaka just nods and closes the holo record. 

“I personally am so ready for things to go back to normal that I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of my personal dignity in the process. Am I wrong in assuming you both feel the same?”

“Hux.” Ren leaps up from the desk, looking positively diabolical with his usual smile-- somehow still a bit crooked --stretched onto Mitaka’s face. “Does this mean--” 

“Quiet, Ren. Dopheld, we’ve already asked a lot of you, and your patience has been appreciated. Meanwhile, I witnessed you despairing about your current state yesterday, and today your co-Commander Thanisson inquired about your absence.”

“He did?” Now it’s Mitaka’s turn to abruptly stand, making graceless use of Ren’s body in doing so. “I-- Sorry, sir, but might I ask what he said, exactly?”

“That he’s concerned about your absence. That he hasn’t been able to find you. And I fear that others will begin to pointedly wonder soon, too. Therefore, I’m entertaining an unfortunate suggestion of Ren’s that has to do with sexual congress.” 

Ren snorts. Hux glares at him. He means to be direct about this. It is not a seduction or a leisurely undertaking. It is for the good of the Empire.  

“Sexual?” Mitaka says. 

This meek repetition is not lacking wonder, and Hux is reminded, warmly, of his initial consent to Ren’s offers of sexual services in addition to his role as the leader of Hux’s armies. Ren had responded with open wonder; even with the Force at his disposal, he really hadn’t thought Hux would agree to it, and Hux had felt accomplished in that regard, as if he had surprised the Force itself.

“Here’s the deal.” Ren walks to the middle of the room, obviously thinking he’s going to be taking charge here. “Mitaka, I don’t expect you to fuck your own body, that’s weird. And I’m sure as shit not going to fuck mine. But if we get to a point of, you know, union, with Hux as the sort of centerpoint, as I believe he was when this transference happened in the first place, I think then we could let go of this physical entanglement and find ourselves back in our proper bodies.” 

Mitaka considers it. He doesn’t seem as surprised as Hux feels he perhaps should be, but after being thrown into the body of another person without warning he may simply be beyond surprise. He swallows, Ren’s throat bobbing. At his sides, Ren’s big hands twitch. Hux flushes at the sight, wanting them on him and also still thrown by the thought that it wouldn’t be Ren touching him if they were. 

“I would be willing, sir,” Mitaka says, looking to Hux. “Yes.” 

“Ha!” Ren says. His expression is hard to read. It’s triumphant but also predatory; there’s a threat in it. “I knew it.” 

“Knew what?” Mitaka snaps. He looks dangerous, suddenly. Like Ren when he’s mad.

“I knew you wanted Hux’s ass,” Ren says. “And now you get to have it. Lucky you.” 

“Don’t presume to tell anyone they can have my ass or not,” Hux says, striding over to Ren. He grabs Mitaka’s wrist and holds it, squeezing, glowering into Mitaka’s face and seeing Ren return his angry, impassioned stare. Hux is getting hard for the charged feeling of conflict that often leads to their best fucks. He’s sure that Ren is, too. 

“Forgive me,” Ren says. “How would you like to proceed, Emperor?” 

“I’m going to have a drink. You can both join me if you like. Then we’ll retire to the bedchamber together.” 

As for exactly what will come after that, Hux is drawing a blank. He’s been with multiple partners before: long ago at the Academy, fooling around with two fellow cadets, and several times with Ren, when they indulged in leisure time that was so decadent that additional bedmates became involved. But all of those incidents were lighthearted; Hux has perhaps never laughed as much as he did with the two other cadets that day, all of them red-faced and awkward and also drunk. Sharing partners with Ren was funny, too, because they were both always so comfortably in control, and their third was usually drooling with worship. He doubts this undertaking will involve much laughter, though Mitaka may drool with worship before it’s all said and done.  

Hux makes quick work of two glasses of brandy and brings the bottle with him to the bedchamber. Mitaka accepts a drink of his own and Ren refuses, predictably. Hux does not feel drunk enough to undress in front of them, but he unclasps his cape anyway, resigning himself to the task at hand. It’s true that he’s curious. His pulse is pumping hard already, and his cock has been twitching in his pants since he peered into Mitaka’s face and saw the heat of Ren’s need of him within Mitaka’s dark eyes. 

“Let me,” Ren says, striding over to help Hux with his cape. 

Hux moves away, objecting with a slight shake of his head. 

_No_ , he sends to Ren when he looks confused, hurt. _I don’t want him seeing our actual intimate practices. Sex is one thing. No rituals-- I’ll put the cape away myself._

Ren frowns but seems to agree. He tugs off his tank top to expose Mitaka’s modestly muscled chest to the room. 

Hux goes into his closet to hang his cape. It feels wrong; even when Ren isn’t here to do it for him, he normally has a droid who attends him and puts his clothes away after bringing fresh ones. He takes his coat off in the closet, then his belt, pants, shoes. When he emerges he’s wearing only his thin undershirt and a pair of high-cut black briefs. He feels himself flushing and supposes it can’t be helped. Soon Mitaka will see far more vulnerable sides of him, after all. It’s a revolting thought, on one level, but then again: Hux has enjoyed inviting others into their bed in the past, and Mitaka is nothing if not loyal. He’s also infatuated with Hux, according to Ren, and this seems true when Hux’s gaze flicks to Ren’s mostly undressed body and Ren’s cock visibly hardens inside his briefs. 

“It’s so unfair,” Ren says, pouting as he steps out of Mitaka’s underwear and tosses them aside, exposing Mitaka’s dick. It’s fine, not the sort Hux is normally attracted to but not small or crooked or discolored or anything. 

Hux doesn’t bother to ask Ren what’s particularly unfair about this situation: he assumes Ren means that Mitaka gets to wield Ren’s impressive cock, which is hardening further as Mitaka stands fidgeting, looking like he’s already not sure where he should put his hands. 

“Dopheld,” Hux says, trying to keep his voice calm and friendly as he removes his shirt. “Have you been with a man before?” 

“Yes,” Mitaka says. He reaches for the waistband of Ren’s briefs but doesn’t take them off. “Only ever with men, in fact. Sir.” 

“Really! The same is true for me. Ren, too, but he’s only ever been with me, so--”

“Hux!” 

“What? It’s nothing to be ashamed of, I love that about you. And if this is going to work we need to be open with each other, yes?”

Ren just glowers. It looks fairly hilarious as he stands there in Mitaka’s body, Mitaka’s cock continuing to harden and rise toward his belly. His pubic hair is very neat, unlike Ren’s wild bush. 

“So,” Hux says, sighing. “Here’s the main event, I guess.” 

He peels his underthings off, flushing brighter as they slide down over his thighs. Mitaka removes his at the same time, perhaps as a show of respect. He widens his stance once they’re off, staring down at Ren’s massive cock as if becoming this monstrously erect requires readjusting his balance. 

“Fine,” Hux says, in answer to a question that no one asked. It feels as if the very air in the bedroom is wobbling with a nervous tremor. “I’m going to have another drink. Dopheld?” 

“Ah-- No, sir, thank you.” 

Hux strides naked across the room, attempting to maintain a sense of regality as he does. Ren swats his ass as he passes, undoing his efforts. 

“Sorry,” Ren says, smirking at the look Hux gives him. “Just trying to lighten the mood.” 

Hux formulates a plan while gulping down more brandy, which only makes the fire on his cheeks feel hotter. The alcohol lightens his head a bit, meanwhile, and he’s able to push aside his hesitation and harness his natural talent for confident leadership. He turns to find Mitaka and Ren both standing near the bed, and before speaking he reminds himself, firmly: Mitaka is the one who looks like Ren. Ren is the one who appears to be Mitaka. Even after days of this, it feels like something that bears keeping in mind, especially before he dives in to having them both. 

“Mitaka,” Hux says. “Would you object to Ren preparing himself-- that is, you, your body --to take my cock?”

“I--” Mitaka glances at Ren uncertainly, mouth hanging open. “No, sir,” he says. “I would like-- That is-- I would consider it, ah. An honor.” 

He seems to be serious. Ren is already going for the lube. 

“Good, thank you,” Hux says. “Would you also like the honor of tasting the Emperor’s cock?”

The impulse to laugh rises from the pit of Hux’s stomach after he’s said so, but he manages to keep his expression mostly neutral. Mitaka is nodding, looking dazed. Hux has had Ren’s mouth on him hundreds if not thousands of times, but this will be different. Ren is a tease, very good at holding Hux just where he wants him until he’s ready to give Hux what he wants. Mitaka will likely be more eager to please him openly. 

“Watch me prep his ass while he sucks you,” Ren says, seated on the bed and holding the lube. He looks unsure and sounds a bit panicked. 

Hux nods, holding Ren’s gaze. He strokes his hand through Ren’s hair when Mitaka kneels before him, licking at Ren’s lips and staring at Hux’s cock. On the bed, Ren reaches between Mitaka’s spread legs, feeling his hole with dry fingers as if he’s simply trying to orient himself. Hux can’t say for certain if he’s aroused or having an out of body experience, but his cock is at full attention as Mitaka timidly brings the point of Ren’s tongue out to taste his slit.

Hux hisses, surprised somehow by how good that feels. He hasn’t had any kind of sex with a partner in far too long, by this point. His hips want to thrust forward when Mitaka takes another timid lick. 

“What are you doing?” Ren snaps. “It’s not a lollipop. Don’t tease your Emperor, Commander. Do you not know how to suck cock?”

“Ren!” Hux says before Mitaka can fire back. “If I want you to give him directions, I’ll ask. He’s only, ah. Savouring the experience.” 

Hux looks down at Mitaka. He wants to pet Ren’s jaw, to stroke his hair. But perhaps that would be too cruel with Ren unable to feel either caress, only able to watch as his body receives them and Mitaka enjoys the attention. 

“Sir,” Mitaka says. “Would you like-- Something else?”

“You’re doing just fine. Continue. Ren is impatient in the bedroom, you’ll find.”

 _All you do is complain about me_ , Ren sends, and he pushes a lube-slick finger into Mitaka’s ass with angry determination when Hux looks at him. Ren grunts and flinches as if he’s surprised by the bite of pain he’s probably experiencing. Mitaka at least doesn’t seem to notice this; he’s lapping softly at Hux’s cockhead again, making it hard for him to concentrate on sending a thought back to Ren in response. 

_I’m doing this for you_ , Hux sends. _Because of a mistake you made, which has brought us here, to this singularly awkward moment. So maybe forgive my ungenerous--_

“Ah,” Hux says, without meaning to, his hips jutting forward when Mitaka swirls his tongue. He seems to be intentionally trying to recapture Hux’s attention, and his eyes-- Ren’s eyes --are dark and sweet when Hux glances down at him. Hux’s mouth hangs open as he watches Mitaka part Ren’s fat lips to take him in. He moves slowly, his tongue working the underside as his eyes fall shut in a soft flutter, as if he’s been waiting to nurse nectar from the Emperor’s cock for many years. 

“You’re supposed to be watching me,” Ren snaps.

Hux looks up at him, breathing more heavily as Mitaka begins to move in a slow bobbing motion. Ren has two fingers in Mitaka’s ass now. Hux has seen Ren finger himself loads of times, and this is different in some ways other than the obvious. Mitaka’s shoulders and jaw are tight as Ren pumps his fingers in and out in jerky little motions. 

“Stop,” Hux says. 

Mitaka does, though Hux was talking to Ren, who keeps fingering Mitaka’s hole without finesse. 

“I think you should let me do that,” Hux says, still holding Ren’s gaze. “If Dopheld doesn’t mind?”

“I don’t,” Mitaka says, apparently not needing clarification. “You can-- Sir, yes. I’d prefer you, ah. Prepare me, actually.” 

“Then you should have said so,” Hux says, more indulgent than scolding, his fingers carding through Ren’s hair again. “And what will you do while I’m working you open?”

“I could--” Mitaka bats Ren’s eyelashes, swallows. “Do you, that is, um--”

“Spit it out, Dopheld.” 

“If you’d like it I could give you anal pleasure with my tongue, sir.” 

Mitaka swallows again after saying so. Ren laughs so hard that he falls back onto the bed, fingers pulled free now. 

“Anal pleasure,” Ren says, smirking at Hux. “It’s called rimming, you nerf-herding dweeb. Or eating ass, if you prefer.” 

“He’s hardly going to call it _eating ass_ in the presence of his Emperor,” Hux shoots back. “You might take a lesson from him in showing some respect.” 

_You don’t mean that_ , Ren sends. His voice in Hux’s mind sounds broken, worried. _You don’t really want me to be like this little shit. Hux. Do you?_

“Just lie back,” Hux says, walking toward the bed. “Look at what a mess you’ve made of our Commander already. Spread you legs. Show me where you need to be opened.” 

Ren makes a petulant face but obeys. It’s strange to climb onto the bed and feel bigger than him, to be able to loom over him so fully. Hux is conscious of Mitaka timidly watching them, and the fact that his eyes are probably on Hux’s ass as he leans up over Ren on all fours. He wiggles his hips a little, subtly.

“Come Dopheld,” Hux says, glancing back over his shoulder. Maybe he’s beginning to enjoy himself, a little. “You may use your tongue as you requested.”

“ _My_ tongue, you mean,” Ren says. 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Hux caresses Mitaka’s face, watches his eyes soften as Ren melts for the touch. “I should have asked you, of course-- Are you all right with your tongue being used on me?” 

“On your hole?” Ren smirks when Hux frowns at the sound of that word. “Of course, your Excellence. You could chain my face to your ass and make him eat you out until he cries. I’m no delicate flower. Use that body however you like.” 

Hux pops open the lube and holds in a gasp when he feels Mitaka gripping his hips uncertainly. 

“Have you got any, ah-- Requests?” Hux asks, glancing back at him. “Any limit to the number of fingers you’d like inside you, something like that?”

“Sir,” Mitaka says. “I trust you with my life.”

Before Hux can ask what the hell that means in this context, Mitaka lowers down and spreads his cheeks gently. Then there’s hot breath on his hole, and Ren’s familiar tongue. Hux locks eyes with Ren, his mouth falling open as Mitaka begins to carefully, worshipfully lick him. 

“Fuck,” Ren says, hushed with wonder. “Hux.” 

“Mhm-- Hmm?”

“Just. Your face. I should record you, while I do this. But even if I did, just-- Watching you while I eat you out, fuck. Kiss me?”

Hux considers asking Mitaka if that’s okay, but surely he heard the request and he’s licking into Hux now like he loves the idea, Ren’s mouth getting very wet. Hux swoons down to peck his lips against Mitaka’s. It’s an instant disappointment, and when his eyes flutter open again he sees that Ren feels it, too. Kissing just feels like one mouth touching another without Ren’s actual lips involved. 

“Soon,” Hux whispers, stroking Mitaka’s cheek. He grunts as Mitaka licks into him like he wants Hux’s attention back, and rolls his hips in appreciation, shifting backward. “Move up a bit,” Hux says to Ren. “Do you want my fingers inside you?”

“Want your dick inside me,” Ren says, grabbing the back of Mitaka’s knees and holding them against his chest. “Want you to give this little prick the fuck of his life.”

“You know,” Mitaka says, pulling away from Hux’s ass but still holding it open with both hands, “Maybe if you weren’t such an-- Maybe if you were kinder to me, Lord Ren, we might get somewhere with the switch back. Just a thought.” 

After saying so, and before Hux can endorse this methodology, he dives back into eating Hux’s ass like a starving man, working Ren’s jaw and tongue eagerly.  

“He has a point,” Hux says, struggling not to pant his breath. Ren huffs, then moans when Hux reaches down to feel out the situation with two lube-slick fingers. “Have you made it sore?” Hux asks in a whisper, rubbing around the rim. “Do you need to be opened more gently?” 

_Only because I’m in his weak-ass body._

“Be nice,” Hux says, and he slides one finger in slowly, watching the sparking flicks of pleasure in Ren’s increasingly hazy expression. Hux leaks a few fat drops of precome when he feels how tight Mitaka is; not discernibly more so than Ren but differently somehow. 

“Oh, fuck, that’s weird,” Ren says, eyes rolling back when Hux swipes at Mitaka’s prostate. 

“Do you want to stop?” Hux asks, sincerely. 

Ren shakes his head. “Just-- Keep going, get me open. Want you in me.” 

Hux waits for him to correct himself: get _him_ open, want you in _him_ , but right now that’s not the case, despite the body switch. Mitaka is eating Hux’s ass as if he’s really Mitaka, given a prize he never thought he’d win and lapping at it for all he’s worth, and Ren is clenching up around Hux’s pumping finger like he’s fully Ren, shameless and greedy. 

“Hux,” Ren says, pressing down to meet the friction. “Fuck-- Faster, please.” 

“Shh, let me take my time. This is very delicate work.” 

Ren huffs but doesn’t otherwise protest. He moans in gratitude when Hux inserts another finger. Part of the reason he’s moving so slowly and deliberately is that he can barely trust himself to think straight with what Mitaka is doing to his ass: lighting him up like a fucking expert, dipping down to lave his perineum and then returning to pummel into his hole with Ren’s tongue, which has somehow never felt so powerful. 

“I could suck your dick while he does that,” Ren offers. 

Hux nods, then shakes his head; that seems unfair somehow. “Would rather put my cock in here,” he says, giving Ren two sharp thrusts with his fingers. 

Ren groans and presses up to meet the intrusion. He looks sweet like this: like Mitaka, and also far more surrendered than he normally allows himself to be when Hux has him. Usually he’s smirking and making smart-assed comments right up until the moment when Hux comes inside him. 

“Suck his nipples,” Ren says, dragging Mitaka’s palm across them. “They, I think-- They’re, ah. Sensitive.” 

“They are,” Mitaka says, his voice muffled by Hux’s ass cheeks. Then he digs in again. Hux holds in a shout, beginning to feel almost overstimulated there. But not enough to ask him to stop. 

He refocuses on Mitaka’s nipples, which are quite small and dark and so suddenly tantalizing that he’s surprised he didn’t zero in on them sooner. When he lowers his head to suck on the left nipple Ren moans and pushes a hand into Hux’s hair, scratching Mitaka’s little fingers against his scalp. 

“Feels good,” Ren says, in Mitaka’s cracked voice. “Hux--”

“Shhh.” Hux is still fingering him, toying with his prostate at irregular intervals that he hopes are infuriating as well as pleasurable. “Let me take care of you. Lie back, release your mind.” 

Hux doesn’t really know what he’s talking about, but Ren seems to listen. He tugs at Hux’s hair and writhes as Hux works on his nipples, moving from one to the other and mimicking the motions Mitaka is using on his ass. For a moment Hux thinks he could come just from this, but no: his cock is so sadly untended, and he wants to be inside Ren however he can. He wants to be inside Mitaka, too, and oddly enough he can have a little of both at the same time. The thought gives him an idea, and he’s surprised it hasn’t occurred to him before this moment.

“Mitaka,” he says, pushing up onto all fours again. “Enough, ah, please-- thank you.” 

“Sir,” Mitaka says. He sounds tearful. “Thank _you_.” 

Ren laughs. Hux shoots him a look, but he’s grinning a little.

“Don’t go far now,” Hux says, looking over his shoulder at Mitaka. “I’m going to be inside Ren-- Inside you, too, in a sense. You’re still okay with that?”

“More than ever,” Mitaka says. Ren’s mouth looks so wet and red after Mitaka’s use of it, and his eyes are swimming. 

“Good,” Hux says. He licks his own lips. “I want you inside me, in the meantime. Meaning, really-- you,” he adds quickly, looking to Ren. “I told you once I’d never let anyone else inside me ever again.”

“Because my cock was so perfect,” Ren says, looking sad. 

“ _Is_ so perfect, Ren. It’s still yours. Are you okay with him using it on me?”

“Fuck-- Yes, Hux, just. Anything you want.” 

“I assume you’d much prefer this arrangement than one where what is technically his cock ends up inside me?” 

“Yes.” Ren swallows, nods. “I know-- You miss it. I’ve been thinking about that. How much you must want it back.”

“It.” Hux _tsks_ and touches Mitaka’s jaw, holds Ren’s gaze. 

_You_ , he sends. _Every piece of you where it ought to be. My Enforcer._

 _My Emperor_ , Ren sends back. Mitaka’s eyes water. Hux is speechless, but only for a moment. 

“Here,” Hux says, and he clears his throat when his voice comes out thick. He grabs the lube and passes it to Mitaka. “Use it liberally, please. That cock is not easy to operate. It takes a true artist to realize its full potential.” 

Ren snorts. He’s grinning. Hux didn’t really think this would work when he agreed to give it a shot, but now he feels something building between his ribs, a kind of momentum. Possibly he just desperately wants to come inside Mitaka’s ass while being fucked by Ren’s dick, but it doesn’t seem that simple from where he’s sitting, lodged between them. 

He slicks himself and pushes into Ren first, watching his expressions. Mitaka’s hand is on the small of Hux’s back, stroking, supportive. He’s breathing heavily as he watches Hux enter him, whimpering at moments like a boy watching a holoporn he can’t believe he’s been lucky enough to discover on the net, a true gem. Hux had thought fucking Ren-as-Mitaka would feel alienating, but he hasn’t felt this close to the ‘real’ Ren since this entire disaster began. He swoops in for a kiss and this time it feels right: that’s not Ren’s tongue, nor his perfect lips, but it’s his kiss, his hunger, his grateful sigh against Hux’s open mouth when he’s all in, as deep as he can get. 

“Now,” Hux says to Mitaka, pretending he’s not nervous about someone who isn’t Ren using that monstrous cock on him. “Go ahead, Dopheld. I’m ready.” 

“Ah-- Yes, sir.” 

The first bump of Ren’s cockhead against Hux’s hole is not promising, clumsy and poorly aimed, but then Mitaka seems to harness his battle-hardened will to succeed and breaches Hux in a smooth, steady press, neither too brisk nor too timid. Hux groans with shameless relief as he feels it, what he’s needed so badly during these past few infuriating days: Ren’s cock sliding into him, claiming him and calming him, and Ren watching-- through Mitaka’s eyes, but still --as Hux’s face slackens as he takes it, undone with pleasure. 

“Hux,” Ren says, almost soundlessly. 

Behind him, Mitaka is panting in a reedy, amazed sort of way. 

“Sir,” he says. “Sir, sir--”

“Shh!” Hux says. “Dopheld, don’t-- Just don’t call me anything, just do the work.”

“Yes-- yes, okay, um. Yes.” 

Ren rolls his eyes-- Mitaka’s eyes, actually, but Hux can nearly see Ren as he really is despite the fact that he’s hiding behind Mitaka’s face. Ren is squeezing around him, pressing his hips up, asking to be fucked. Hux pushes back, groaning when he feels Ren’s cock nudging against his prostate as he does. He pushes back in and drools against Mitaka’s little chin, kissing Ren there. 

He’s never been the middle person in this sort of arrangement before, and he finds that he enjoys the sense of undoing. He feels increasingly drunk but also very present, every sensitive bit of him lit up by their bodies as they feed into him and receive him at the same time, a kind of ever-renewing cycle of fluid motion. It’s surprisingly well choreographed, certainly not by Hux and maybe not even by the two of them, but by some Force that has taken hold of them, cradling them in a flowing exchange of sensation and heat.

 _Ren_ , Hux sends. _Where are you?_

 _Inside you_ , he sends back. _And all around you. Right here. I’m here, Hux, right fucking here. Don’t you feel it?_

Hux makes an agonized sound that rips out of him without his permission. He’s going to come-- Inside Ren, and around him, everything all at once. He sobs when he feels himself spilling into-- Ren, Mitaka? He’s milking Ren’s cock as he spasms, tasting Ren’s moans as his mouth closes over Mitaka’s, and when he opens his eyes he half-expects to find himself drifting outside the ship, somehow flicked into the vast uncaring hold of space, because all boundaries feel erased from around and within him. 

“Sir,” Mitaka says, panting up at him. 

Hux opens his mouth to laugh in relief or maybe to even attempt an intelligible answer, but before he can Ren groans and wraps both strong arms around him, pulling him out of Mitaka perhaps less gently than he could have. Hux’s feet scrabble against the floor, and he relaxes when he feels Ren pulling out of him, come pouring from his hole and soaking his thighs as Ren turns him around and gapes at him, his eyes wild with a kind of animal fear, as if he’s afraid to find someone else inside Hux now that he’s back in his own body. 

“It’s me,” Hux says, breathless, and Ren makes a kind of shuddering laugh/sob sound, grabbing his face with both hands. 

“Hux,” Ren says, in his own voice, with his own mouth. “I-- I’m-- It worked--”

Hux grins and leans up onto his toes, kissing Ren as hard as he can manage while he fights the impulse to laugh, lips shaking against the hot press of Ren’s. For a while this goes on, half-words muttered against each other’s mouths and the threat of tears blinked away as their damp lashes brush together, and then Hux remembers Mitaka. 

He’s sitting on the bed, rubbing his hands over his lean muscles and then dipping his fingers down between his thighs, where Hux’s come has leaked from him. He looks amazed when he finally glances up to see both Hux and Ren staring at him. 

“I’m me,” Mitaka says, beaming. 

“Thank you,” Hux says hoarsely. He scrubs a hand over his face and wishes for a robe, though he supposes there’s no sense in pretending that things haven’t forever changed between him and Mitaka, who deserves to see the Emperor’s trembling, come-slick thighs and almost wet eyes. “Dopheld. I’m so sorry you had to endure this, and so-- So happy to see you back as you should be.”

“Me too,” Ren says, and Hux turns to him with surprise. He’s looking at Mitaka, holding his gaze. “You-- You’re strong. A weaker man would have gone mad, if this was thrust onto him. Your conduct was admirable.” 

“Thanks.” Mitaka grins-- There’s something of Ren in it, maybe, or maybe Hux just never noticed that his Commander’s real smile is a little crooked. “Um, and if you don’t mind-- Can we debrief about this later? I’d really like to get back to Than-- To my own rooms. If that’s amenable to you, sir.” 

“I understand,” Hux says, thinking of the way Thanisson seemed to want to beg him for something more during their meeting. “You may go, of course, and I’m going to give you a special commendation for this, something like extra shore leave, whatever you want.”

“Oh, that’s-- That’s fine, sir, you don’t need to-- Could I just give you a farewell in the manner of my culture? My original culture, I mean.” 

“Er-- Yes, of course, anything.” 

Mitaka steps forward and pulls Hux against him: hugging him, tightly. He smiles when he releases Hux and glances at Ren. 

“You can embrace me as well,” Ren announces, putting his shoulders back.

Mitaka hesitates. Hux stifles a laugh when he realizes that this is more Ren’s wish than Mitaka’s. Their hug is somewhat stiff, but not without it’s own kind of warmth.

When Mitaka has gone, Hux thinks of having another drink. His mind is spinning already, and he feels like he could spend three or four cycles just staring up into Ren’s face and seeing him looking back. He considers reframing things before they can get overly sentimental, lecturing Ren about never doing that again or demanding that he take a shower to wash the remaining traces of Mitaka off.

Instead, he lowers slowly to his knees, keeping his eyes on Ren’s all the way down. Ren’s spent cock hangs heavy near Hux’s face, but he’s got no plans to engage it just yet. He will demand that Ren showers before that, at least. 

“On your knees,” Ren says when he catches on. He smiles, touches Hux’s hair. “For me?”

“For you.” Hux takes hold of Ren’s thighs, digs his nails in. He’s still angry, a little. This was so unnecessary. But Ren is back, Ren is here, just as he should be. “Only ever for you,” Hux says, trying to make it sound like a kind of threat, like: _Don’t leave me again. Not even a little_. 

“You may rise,” Ren says, twisting his fingers into Hux’s hair. 

Hux stands and smacks Ren hard on the ass for that smugness. Ren smirks and hoists him up, fully off the floor, into his arms. Hux clings, buries his face against Ren’s neck, breathes in deep. Even the scent of his actual body wasn’t quite right, with Mitaka occupying it. Maybe that’s sentimental: maybe Hux is only imagining it. 

“How’d you know about his sensitive nipples?” Hux asks, sitting back in the circle of Ren’s arms.

“I was-- Nothing crude, okay? Just the way shirts brushed against them. Drove me nuts.” 

Hux laughs and Ren kisses him. They kiss all the way into Hux’s washroom. In the shower, under very hot water, they wash each other until their skin blushes bright pink. Hux doesn’t really want to erase all traces of the experience, but the ritual feels good anyway, like something that belongs solely to them. Like so many things he treasures: like all the real, best artifacts of his rule. 

 

**


End file.
